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WAR  IN  HEAVEN. 


SIXTEEN    YEARS'    EXPERIENCE    IN    CHRISTIAN 
SCIENCE    MIND-HEALING. 


JOSEPHINE   CURTIS   WOODBURY. 
II 


THIRD  EDITION. 


BOSTON,  MASS.: 

PRESS  OF  SAMUEL  USHER. 

1897. 


6P/S-? 

COPYRIGHT,  1897, 

BY 
JOSEPHINE  CURTIS  WOODBURYC 


THERE  was  war  in  heaven : 

REVELATIONS  xn.  7. 


WHERE  there  is  no  vision,  the  people  perish. 

PROVERBS  xxix.  18. 


THE  only  faith  that  wears  well,  and  holds  its  color  in  all 
weathers,  is  that  which  is  woven  of  conviction,  and  set  with  the 
sharp  mordant  of  experience.  —  LOWELL. 


WAR   IN    HEAVEN. 


FIRST   GLIMPSES. 

IN  1879  came  to  me  the  first  knowledge  of  a 
method  of  healing,  called  at  that  time  Mind 
Cure ;  and  the  next  year  I  received  my  earliest 
mental  treatment,  at  the  same  time  becoming 
acquainted  with  the  book  written  by  Mrs.  Mary 
Baker  Glover  Eddy,  called  Science  and  Health, 
with  Key  to  the  Scriptures.  At  once  I  found 
myself  spiritually  enrolled  as  an  active  soldier 
—  I  trust,  on  the  right  side  —  in  a  warfare  be- 
tween mental  forces  whose  very  existence  had 
heretofore  been  to  me  a  sealed  book. 

HEREDITY. 

MY  parents  were  numbered  among  progress- 
ive  Unitarians    and    prominent    Aboli- 
tionists, and  I  was  also  akin  to  other  advanced 
educational  and  moral  thinkers  ;  so  that  I  heard 

5 


religious  and  philanthropic  topics  constantly 
discussed,  not  infrequently  by  men  and  women, 
bearing  names  now  household  words  in  New 
England,  who  were  leading  reformers  in  the 
middle  of  the  nineteenth  century,  and  were  fre- 
quent guests  in  my  childhood's  home.  Though 
often  beyond  her  comprehension,  their  ideas  ex- 
erted a  marked  influence  on  the  future  of  one 
juvenile  listener. 

Edwin  Battles  was  my  father,  and  Josephine 
Curtis  my  mother ;  and  we  lived  in  Milford,  a 
large  manufacturing  town  in  the  heart  of  Mas- 
sachusetts, where  party  feeling  ran  high  in  pro- 
slavery  sympathy  with  the  rebellious  Southern 
States ;  yet  the  harboring  of  a  contraband  be- 
neath the  parental  roof  did  not  intimidate  me, 
and  I  remember  asking  the  privilege  of  a  ride, 
in  the  same  carriage  with  my  father  and  a  negro, 
to  a  political  meeting.  "  Shots  may  be  fired  at 
us  in  the  dark,"  was  the  paternal  warning ;  but 
the  little  daughter  had  her  way. 

Thus  learning  to  love  justice,  right,  harmony, 
and  to  practice  self-sacrifice,  there  was  fostered 
within  me  an  ambition  to  be  of  some  use  in  the 
world. 

Through  the  family  instrumentality  a  Unita- 
rian Society  was  started,  meetings  being  held 
in  a  small  and  barren  hall,  devoid  of  the  custom- 
6 


ary  worshipful  paraphernalia ;  and  this  brought 
upon  my  devoted  head  the  jeers  of  schoolmates, 
and  the  distrust  of  the  master,  whose  sincere 
though  severe  views  were  of  a  conservative 
type  which  forbade  his  feeling  any  sympathy 
with  what  is  called  Liberal  Christianity. 

When  my  father  also  initiated  a  town  library, 
and  asked  us  children  to  aid  its  formative 
nucleus  with  contributions  of  our  favorite  books, 
the  offering  was  cheerfully  made,  though  I 
could  not  bear  to  give  up  my  Uncle  Tom's 
Cabin. 

EDUCATION. 

-. 

THOUGH  the  youngest  member  of  a  large  t 
high-school  class,  at  the  early  age  of  six- 
teen I  was  graduated  as  poet  and  valedictorian, 
with  the  added  honor  of  being  the  only  scholar 
who  had  ever  maintained  one  hundred  percent  of 
attendance  for  the  entire  four  years,  never  being 
once  absent,  tardy,  or  even  dismissed  before  the 
close  of  a  session. 

In  1866  no  boarding-school  in  the  country 
could  boast  a  more  famous  group  of  instructors 
than  the  seminary  established  at  old  Lexington, 
by  Dr.  Dio  Lewis,  where  I  passed  a  most 
valuable  year.  Among  them  were  Torricelli, 
7 


Grace  Greenwood,  Theodore  Tilton,  Catherine 
Beecher,  Thomas  Niles,  Bocher,  Moses  Coit 
Tyler,  Virginia  Townsend,  and  Emma  Lazarus. 
The  pupils  were  drawn  from  representative  and 
intelligent  households  in  all  parts  of  the  country; 
and  one  might  name  the  Danas,  Sharps,  Chases, 
Hills,  Lincolns,  Sewalls,  Sargents,  Tudors,  two 
daughters  of  Nathaniel  Hawthorne,  and  a  niece 
of  the  poet  Saxe.  The  real  principal  was  the 
bravely  progressive  Theodore  D.  Weld,  assisted 
by  his  wonderfully  heroic  and  freedom-loving 
wife,  Angelina  Grimk6  ;  and  chiefly  from  his 
instructions  I  imbibed  that  fondness  for  meta- 
physical study  which  became  subsequently  the 
groundwork  of  my  life-thought. 

BLOSSOMING. 

DURING  the  ensuing  years  of  my  earliest 
womanhood  African  slavery  was  politi- 
cally abolished,  free-religious  thought  waxed 
triumphant,  corporal  punishment  in  schools 
largely  gave  place  to  moral  suasion,  and  there 
were  signs  of  the  incoming  of  a  reign  of  peace- 
ful goodness.  In  a  word,  it  might  be  said,  in 
the  language  of  Shakespeare  : 

Night's  candles  are  burnt  out,  and  jocund  day 
Stands  tiptoe  on  the  misty  mountain-tops. 
8 


Belonging  to  a  race  of  men  and  women  for 
two  centuries  furnishing  educators  for  the 
public  schools  of  the  old  Bay  State,  it  was 
almost  inevitable  that  I  should  follow  in  their 
footsteps,  and  for  several  years  be  a  teacher  in 
Milford,  Worcester,  and  Boston,  beginning  at 
the  immature  age  of  seventeen  ;  and  some  par- 
donable pride  may  be  allowed  in  one  first  to 
abandon,  not  only  rattan  and  ferule,  but  every 
other  form  of  physical  discipline.  That  this 
was  accomplished  without  detriment  to  success- 
ful pedagogy,  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  seven 
rungs  of  the  ladder  led  through  as  many  higher 
schools,  and  that  my  retirement,  after  three 
years,  was  attended  by  the  offer  of  still  another 
promotion. 

WEDLOCK. 

IN  1874  I  was  married  to  Edward  Franklin 
Woodbury,  of  Boston,  certain  particulars 
of  whose  lineage  may  be  germane  to  this  narra- 
tive ;  for  he  can  trace  his  descent  through  Gov- 
ernor Thomas  Dudley,  of  Massachusetts  Bay, 
the  drapers  Dudley,  of  London,  the  ten  barons 
of  the  same  name,  —  including  in  their  line 
Robert,  Earl  of  Leicester,  of  Ken il worth  fame, 
—  back  to  such  English  sovereigns  as  the 
Edwards,  Henry  First  and  Henry  Third,  John 
9 


(of  Magna  Charta  fame),  and  Alfred  the  Great ; 
while  another  ancestral  chain  crosses  the  Chan- 
nel to  Henry  the  First  of  France,  and  so  on  to 
Hugh  Capet,  the  founder  of  the  Capetian  and 
Bourbon  line  of  monarchs,  who  held  the  French 
throne  many  centuries,  ending  their  actual 
power  only  with  the  ultimate  triumph  of  the 
French  Revolution,  and  still  claiming  the  right 
to  reign. 

On  both  sides  Mr.  Woodbury's  progenitors 
held  offices  in  her  towns,  and  fought  in  New 
England's  cause,  eleven  being  soldiers  in  the 
Revolutionary  War;  so  that  his  sisters  and 
children,  as  well  as  himself,  are  eligible  to 
membership  in  the  Governor  Thomas  Dudley 
Family  Association,  and  in  the  various  societies 
of  the  Revolution,  Colonial  Wars,  and  Colonial 
Dames. 

In  this  connection  interesting  passages  may 
be  found  in  the  Memoir  of  Honorable  Levi 
Woodbury,  LL.D.,  printed  in  the  New  England 
Historical  and  Genealogical  Register  ;  the  Hon- 
orable Robert  S.  Rantoul's  History  of  the 
Ancient  Family  of  Woodbury,  printed  in  the 
Historical  Collections  of  Essex  (Salem)  Insti- 
tute, Volume  xxiv ;  and  in  the  Honorable 
Charles  Levi  Woodbury's  sketch  of  John  Wood- 
bury,  an  Old  Planter  of  New  England. 

10 


Soon  after  the  Pilgrims  there  came  to  these 
shores  the  Puritans.  Among  them  was  this 
John  Woodbury  ;  and  the  Woodburys  have  ever 
stood  for  integrity,  justice,  and  religious  breadth. 

The  Plymouth  Church  was  organized  in 
Holland,  before  the  sailing  of  the  Mayflower; 
so  that  the  first  church  actually  founded  on  the 
New  England  shore  was  the  one  at  Salem,  to 
which  our  Governors  Thomas  Dudley  and  Simon 
Bradstreet  once  belonged.  Says  one  writer: 

As  an  original  member,  John  Woodbury  bore  his  share 
in  the  building  of  the  first  meeting-house,  and  his  descend- 
ants have  a  birthright  in  its  spiritual  associations. 

Such  was  John  Woodbury's  high  standing, 
that  he  was  shortly  afterwards  sent  back  to  the 
mother  country  as  a  special  envoy  from  colo- 
nists interested  in  the  Cape  Ann  settlements. 

Subsequently  dissensions  arose,  and  in  1635, 
though  afterwards  reflected  to  the  magisterial 
office,  this  same  Mr.  Woodbury  was  expelled 
from  the  General  Court,  "  ostensibly  to  punish 
the  free  speech  of  his  constituent  freeman,  but 
really  to  repress  the  growth  of  religious  tolera- 
tion ; "  and  this  founds  a  claim  "  to  place  him 
among  the  pioneers  of  modern  liberty." 

John's  son,  Peter  Woodbury,  was  a  prominent 
citizen  of  Salem  at  the  close  of  the  seventeenth 
ii 


century,  and  noted  for  keeping  fast  horses,  to 
aid  the  escape  of  suspected  witches  from  the 
provincial  jurisdiction. 

Of  a  later  descendant,  the  Honorable  Levi 
Woodbury,  we  read : 

In  the  matter  of  religious  liberty  and  toleration,  —  won 
in  New  Hampshire  in  1819,  after  twenty  years  of  conflict, 
by  repealing  the  power  of  towns  to  settle  ministers,  and 
tax  the  minority  for  their  support,  —  when  governor,  he 
avowed  his  adhesion  to  the  new  liberty. 

Another  John  Woodbury,  Frank's  grandfa- 
ther, enjoyed  the  full  possession  of  his  facul- 
ties to  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-six ;  and  he 
entertained  very  broad  religious  views,  being 
excluded  from  the  communion-table  for  stoutly 
maintaining  that  there  could  be  no  such  thing 
as  total  depravity,  since  he  had  never  found 
anybody  without  sparks  of  goodness. 

Of  this  man's  son,  Frank's  father,  as  of  my 
own  father,  Mrs.  Eddy  could  well  say,  as  she 
did  at  the  wedding-reception  of  my  brother, 
Wendell  Phillips  Battles,  in  1889:  "They  are 
representative  men  of  New  England,  standing 
for  ideas."  As  has  been  well  suggested  : 

If  there  is  nobility  in  descent,  all  the  more  indis- 
pensable is  it  that  there  should  be  nobility  of  ascent. 


MORE    LIGHT. 

as  yet  no  special  line  of  helpful- 
J-  ness  claimed  my  attention,  there  was  a 
heart-pain  from  the  minor  chord  of  human  woe, 
sounding  through  and  beneath  the  world's  life, 
and  not  to  be  drowned  by  the  steady  march- 
beats  of  human  advancement. 

Much  suffering  being  my  marital  portion, 
which  even  a  husband's  tender  care  could  not 
greatly  alleviate,  the  problem  of  physical  agony 
at  last  seemed  unsolvable.  Youth's  lofty  pur- 
poses to  do  and  dare  were  fading  in  the  dark- 
ness and  peril  of  protracted  ill-health.  Worn 
out  with  bodily  weakness  and  the  constant  ail- 
ments of  my  children,  —  disheartened  by  the 
failure  of  various  physicians  to  heal  this  frame, 
and  of  religion  to  strengthen  the  soul, — the 
year  1880  found  me  anxious  to  be  released  by 
death  from  a  hopeless  struggle,  and  it  was  at 
this  crisis  Mrs.  Eddy's  book  was  first  placed  in 
my  hands. 

Just  then  my  boy  was  abandoned  by  our  doc- 
tor as  hopelessly  incurable  with  membranous 
croup,  a  disease  to  which  he  had  been  subject 
from  birth  ;  and  all  night  long  I  watched  speech- 
less at  his  bedside,  as  he  rapidly  sank  under 
the  worst  attack  of  his  life.  Happily  a  Scientist 
13 


was  boarding  in  the  same  house  with  ourselves, 
and  in  the  morning  she  came  to  my  chamber- 
door  to  say  that  it  must  be  because  I  had  read 
a  part  of  Science  and  Health  already,  that 
Curtis  was  still  breathing ;  and  she  urged  my 
seeking  help  from  a  stronger  healer  than  her- 
self. I  acted  on  her  advice  at  once.  At  nine 
o'clock,  leaving  the  little  fellow  unconscious 
and  apparently  dying,  as  he  had  been  for  hours, 
thirty  minutes  later  I  returned  from  my  call 
upon  the  healer,  to  find  him  absolutely  well, 
gleeful,  and  wild  with  delight  at  his  mother's 
reappearance. 

TREMBLING   IN   THE    BALANCE. 

SO  little  was  mental  healing  yet  understood, 
that  its  practitioners  were  called  Meta- 
physicians,—  a  name  which  even  then  seemed 
a  misnomer ;  but  I  placed  myself  under  this 
treatment,  and  in  six  days  was  entirely  relieved 
of  a  difficulty  of  as  many  years'  standing.  In 
Mrs.  Eddy's  book  was  discerned  El  Dorado,  the 
Golden  Land  of  Promise,  upon  whose  mountain- 
peaks  mortals  had  only  to  gaze,  in  order  to  be 
healed. 

In  myself  the  result  was  wonderful.     Youth- 
ful hopes  once  more  asserted  their  sway,  with 
visions  of  a  glorious  future ;  but  this  enthusiasm 
14 


was  only  temporary,  for  now  was  reached  that 
Slough  of  Despond  which,  sooner  or  later,  en- 
traps the  feet  of  all  Pilgrims  of  Progress  in 
Christian  Science.  Certain  manifestations  were 
unaccountable  on  any  rational  theory.  Persons 
whom  I  persuaded  to  try  this  curative  system 
drifted  into  abnormal  actions.  Their  state- 
ments, sometimes  written  as  well  as  spoken, 
were  startlingly  contradictory.  All  was  not 
harmonious  among  healed  and  healers,  and  not 
yet  was  reached  the  tabernacle  of  peace,  wherein 
a  restored  invalid  might  pass  her  time  in  serene 
contemplation. 

In  my  own  "  chambers  of  imagery  "  also  there 
was  mental  bewilderment.  At  one  moment  all 
seemed  surely  good ;  yet  the  next  hour  the  feel- 
ing supervened  that  wrong  was  the  great  ruler, 
and  that  mankind  might  exclaim  with  Milton's 
Satan,  "Evil,  be  thou  my  Good."  Over  the 
sky  hung  a  subtle  pall.  Was  there  a  vision  of 
the  two  wonders  revealed  by  the  angel  of  the 
Apocalypse,  —  the  Serpent  and  the  Woman  ? 

ANTAGONISM. 

AS  experience  deepened,  it  became  evident 
that  not  only  was  there  War  in  Heaven, 
but  that  here  was  a  call  to  be  a  warrior,  though 
15 


the  recruit  was  ignorant  how  or  what  to  fight. 
Youthful  training  now  made  itself  felt.  Duty 
called  to  exertion.  If  there  were  antagonistic 
powers  of  good  and  evil,  whose  potency  had  not 
heretofore  been  suspected,  they  must  be  inves- 
tigated, both  for  one's  own  safety  and  the  gen- 
eral welfare,  even  at  the  cost  of  possible  mar- 
tyrdom ;  but  might  not  the  plaudit  Well  Done ! 
await  the  winner  ? 

EFFECTS. 

DOING  my  best  to  convert  my  boarding- 
house  companions  to  the  new  faith,  there 
came  one  opportunity  to  forestall  an  epidemic 
of  fear.  Two  other  children  being  stricken 
with  malignant  chicken-pox,  I  was  urged  to 
remove  my  little  ones.  Aforetime  this  behest 
would  have  been  heeded ;  but  no  fear  now 
oppressed  me,  and  the  children  stayed  where 
they  were.  Moreover,  the  alarm  speedily  sub- 
sided, and  no  new  cases  broke  out  among  us. 

As  yet  an  infant  in  Truth,  I  knew  but  one 
Christian  Science  healer ;  and  she  professed 
strong  opposition  to  all  variants  from  the  teach- 
ings of  Mrs.  Eddy,  and  declared  the  methods 
of  these  errant  practitioners  fraught  with  dan- 
gers, against  which  it  was  necessary  to  guard 
both  one's  self  and  one's  patients. 
16 


These  revelations  were  so  alarming  that 
finally  our  family  sought  refuge  at  the  seaside ; 
and,  in  connection  with  this  removal,  occurred 
some  unpleasant  personal  and  business  experi- 
ences, causing  a  relapse  from  vigor  into  a  pain- 
ful illness,  and  well-nigh  wrecking  hope  and 
faith. 

SUFFERING   AND   VICTORY. 

OF  course  the  real  cause  of  these  ailments 
was  not  at  once  apparent,  but  coincident 
with  diligent  search  for  their  source,  extraordi- 
nary feelings  arose.  Great  dread  overcame  me, 
at  times  amounting  to  horror.  Old  physical 
troubles  resumed  their  dominion  with  twofold 
tyranny.  Despite  the  efforts  of  a  Christian 
Science  healer,  I  grew  steadily  worse.  Death 
seemed  so  near  that  once,  in  the  unconscious 
night-watches,  those  about  me  summoned  a 
physician  ;  and  after  severe  maternal  peril  I 
rallied  long  enough  to  hear  him  say :  "  Nothing 
can  save  her  now  but  morphine,  and  that  prom- 
ises only  a  slight  chance  !  " 

With  superhuman  strength  I  appealed  to  my 
stricken  husband  :  "  O  Frank,  help  me  to  cling 
to  God  !  "  and  then  locked  my  teeth  and  fainted. 
Later  I  was  assured  that  the  few  crumbs  of 
truth  assimilated  from  Science  and  Health 
17 


had  been  the  sole  rescuer ;  for  no  morphine  was 
administered,  and  the  medical  attendant  left 
me  with  the  conviction  that  there  was  little 
hope,  though  the  next  morning  happily  found 
me  far  on  the  road  to  recovery. 

THE    TRUE    LEADER. 

THESE  events  convinced  me  that  a  mo- 
mentous spiritual  battle  impended ;  but 
on  which  side  should  one  enlist,  since  different 
leaders  were  contending  for  mastery  ?  The 
name  of  the  true  leader  was  demanded,  as  well 
as  what  issue  was  at  stake.  A  Babel  of  voices 
responded,  but  only  one  caught  my  inward  ear, 
—  a  name  already  heard,  and  belonging  to  a 
woman  seen  once  in  the  year  previous,  when 
she  spoke  in  a  "new  tongue,"  not  yet  under- 
stood by  my  heart.  This  was  the  authoress  of 
Science  and  Health,  whom  some  called  the 
Mother  of  Christian  Science. 

In  a  few  days  after  leaving  my  sick-bed  I 
determined  to  judge  for  myself,  and  sought 
Mrs.  Eddy  in  her  Lynn  residence.  While 
awaiting ^  her  coming,  in  a  large  sunny  parlor,  I 
scented  the  luxuriant  plants  in  the  window-seat ; 
and  of  these  we  spoke,  when  she  presently 
greeted  me  with  graceful  courtesy.  Then  I 
is 


repeated  to  her  the  details  of  my  last  illness,  an 
explanation  of  which,  from  a  mental  standpoint, 
she  most  kindly  offered  me. 

Surely  here  was  an  exalted  leader,  and  I 
dimly  foresaw  a  prolonged  contest,  with 
thoughts  for  weapons,  against  influences  por- 
tentous to  the  doughtiest  heart.  Moreover,  the 
antagonism  was  not  between  one  life  and 
another,  but  arose  within  the  circle  of  the 
same  individual  life ;  thus  illustrating  the  words 
of  Paul,  "their  thoughts  meanwhile  accusing  or 
else  excusing  one  another."  Here  was  the 
exponent  of  the  Christian  Science  movement; 
a  woman  ready,  willing,  able  to  "bruise  the 
Serpent's  head  ; "  and  perforce  the  opposite  of 
Christian  Science  must  likewise  have  its  per- 
sonified purpose. 

At  this  point  my  former  helper  was  unable  to 
sustain  me,  inasmuch  as  the  time  had  evidently 
come  for  me  to  work  out  my  "  own  salvation 
with  fear  and  trembling." 

As  soon  as  my  acquaintanceship  warranted, 
Mrs.  Eddy  was  invited  to  meet,  at  my  home, 
one  of  Boston's  most  eminent  divines,  who  said 
to  her :  "  I  have  preached  the  living  God  for 
forty  years,  but  never  felt  His  presence  and 
power  as  you  do."  He  even  invited  her  to 
occupy  his  pulpit  some  Sunday,  though  this 
19 


proposal  never  came  to  fruition.  Of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  volume  he  said  :  "  It  leavens  all  my  ser- 
mons ! "  but  he  pursued  his  investigations  no 
further. 

COLLEGE   AND   SORROW. 

IN  the  spring  of  the  next  year,  when  Mrs. 
Eddy's  school  was  removed  to  Boston,  it 
was  our  privilege  to  assist  in  procuring  its  loca- 
tion at  569  Columbus  Avenue,  a  house  she 
vacated  in  1883  for  the  one  next  door,  num- 
bered 571. 

As  a  result  of  these  relations,  Mrs.  Eddy 
invited  Mr.  Woodbury  and  myself  to  enter  her 
primary  class,  at  the  reduced  rate  of  a  hundred 
dollars  each,  one  third  of  the  regular  price. 
The  course  was  to  include  ten  evening  lessons, 
and  to  be  attended  by  four  couples  beside  our- 
selves ;  but  the  others  speedily  sought  instruc- 
tion elsewhere,  for  hardly  had  the  lessons  begun, 
when  Dr.  Asa  G.  Eddy,  our  Teacher's  husband, 
fell  violently  ill,  and  the  class  was  unavoidably 
postponed. 

In  May  the  cloud  lifted.  Dr.  Eddy  was 
better,  and  another  class  was  formed,  consisting 
of  five  students ;  but  after  a  few  lessons,  still 
glowing  in  my  memory,  he  was  again  stricken, 
and  in  a  few  days  passed  away.  Here  it  may 

20 


be  noted  that  the  demise  of  this  peace-loving, 
pioneer  student,  was  by  some  attributed  to 
inimical  mental  influences. 

Subsequently,  in  a  conversation  with  my 
father's  old  friend,  Wendell  Phillips,  about 
mental  phenomena,  I  found  that  he  regarded 
mesmerism  rather  as  pastime  than  fact ;  but  he 
said  he  had  read  Science  and  Health  with  in- 
terest and  approval,  and  now  extended  his  sym- 
pathy to  its  author,  a  widow  in  her  affliction; 
but  when  besought  to  study  the  possibilities  of 
mental  slavery  he  replied  : 

My  child,  no  man  can  successfully  identify  himself  with 
but  one  crusade  in  a  lifetime.  My  mission  is  well-nigh 
ended ;  for  forty  years  I  have  held  my  life  in  God's  hands, 
to  do  with  it  as  he  willed;  but  you  are  started  on  a 
warfare  ending  only  with  the  millennium.  The  time  is 
not  far  distant  when  sickness  will  be  considered  as  much  a 
mark  of  ignorance  as  sin  now  is.  Put  your  shoulder  to 
the  wheel,  and  never  look  back. 

Counsel  was  next  sought  of  a  distinguished 
clergyman,  who  said  he  had  in  his  younger 
days,  for  entertainment's  sake,  exercised  mes- 
meric power  over  a  young  lady,  who  suffered  so 
greatly  therefrom  that  he  had  never  again  dared 
exert  this  influence.  Though  unconvinced  that 
mesmerism  could  control  unwilling  subjects,  he 
regarded  Christian  Science  as  but  a  new  form 

21 


thereof,  and  consequently  declined  further  in- 
quiry into  its  merits. 

My  next  call  was  upon  a  prominent  minister, 
greatly  interested  in  psychical  research ;  but  he 
did  not  care  to  give  special  attention  to  the 
matter,  though  afterward,  through  the  press,  he 
argued  against  the  possibility  of  mental  death- 
dealing,  even  while  he  did  not  deride  mental 
healing  or  mental  influence  in  general. 

ESTRANGEMENT. 

A  WALL  now  seemed  to  frame  itself  be- 
tween Mrs.  Eddy  and  myself ;  for  not 
yet  was  learned  by  heart  that  Scripture  proph- 
ecy, "The  serpent  shall  sting  the  bruising 
heel !  "  and  various  misunderstandings  kept  me 
from  her  till  the  early  fall  of  1884.  Though 
feeling  that  she  now  preferred  my  absence,  her 
previous  lessons  held  my  thought,  and  guided 
me  anew  into  a  sense  of  Almighty  power. 


w 


DROWNING   OVERCOME. 

E  were  passing  the  summer  at  Hull,  on 
the  Nantasket  seacoast.  One  day  I 
was  quietly  sewing  in  the  parlor  of  the  Oregon 
House,  when  in  rushed  the  landlady,  exclaim- 
ing :  "  Your  children  are  drowned  !  "  With  an 


unwonted  sense  of  power  I  went  downstairs, 
forced  open  the  outer  door  against  the  wind's 
fury,  and  confronted  a  drenched  and  almost 
exhausted  man,  bearing  in  his  seaweed-covered 
arms  my  apparently  lifeless  children,  Gwendo- 
line, aged  seven,  and  Curtis,  a  year  younger. 
Their  saver  was  a  guest  at  the  hotel,  —  the 
father  of  a  twelve-year-old  lad  who  had  led  the 
smaller  children  too  far  out  on  the  unsafe  pier, 
but  had  saved  himself  as  he  saw  them  swept 
away. 

Receiving  them  in  my  arms  I  carried  them 
upstairs,  and  some  ninety  feet  along  the  corri- 
dor, laid  them  (dripping,  limp,  and  purple)  on 
the  bed,  and  locked  the  door.  By  the  moment 
I  returned  to  the  bedside,  Gwendoline  opened 
her  eyes.  Taking  Curtis  in  my  arms  I  waited, 
with  no  sense  of  death,  but  clinging  with  spirit- 
ual tenacity  to  what  rudiments  of  Christian 
Science  had  taken  possession  of  me. 

In  twenty  minutes  my  boy's  rosy  lips  and 
cheeks  were  smiling  into  my  face;  and  in  an 
hour  I  walked  into  the  parlor,  with  a  dry-clad 
child  grasping  either  hand,  as  if  nothing  had 
happened.  No  disagreeable  symptoms  followed 
the  accident,  though  I  was  thereafter  told  that 
Curtis  sank  thrice  beneath  the  waves,  before 
his  rescuer  could  reach  him. 
23 


This  sign  of  the  healing  power  of  mind 
brought  me  about  forty  people  in  Hull  for  treat- 
ment, though  some  declared  the  whole  affair  an 
outcome  either  of  diabolism  or  delusion. 

SYMPATHY   AND    PROGRESS. 

AN  appeal  Heavenward  had  been  answered 
with  a  healing  demonstration  ;  and  as 
soon  as  bewildering  doubts  were  banished  as  to 
Mrs.  Eddy's  mission,  the  way  was  open  for 
seeking  her.  It  was  plain  that  any  misun- 
derstanding or  misrepresentation  of  Truth's 
ambassador  would  obscure  Deity  as  a  present 
help  ;  while  appreciation  of  her  motives,  even 
while  her  methods  seemed  obscure,  would  afford 
sure  access  to  the  blessing  of  her  impartations. 

She  received  me  with  exquisite  tenderness, 
listening  sympathetically  to  the  tale  of  the 
children's  rescue,  and  a  description  of  her  stu- 
dent's strait  and  thorny  road.  Her  great 
heart  ached  over  each  conflict,  and  rejoiced  over 
each  triumph.  She  bade  me  not  dwell  upon  the 
past,  except  as  it  might  redound  to  future  profit, 
and  invited  me  into  her  new  primary  class,  to 
be  held  in  November  of  that  year,  1884. 

Already  I  had  been  really  among  her  disciples 
five  years,  and  can  name  no  other  student,  still 
24 


in  the  ranks,  who  was  there  when  I  entered 
them,  in  1879;  but  not  till  my  second  term  in 
her  class-room  did  I  join  the  Christian  Scientist 
Association,  made  up  of  the  graduates  of  her 
Metaphysical  College. 

TEMPTATION. 

TO  abide  by  the  Teacher's  supreme  lessons 
was  no  easy  task,  since  it  involved  divid- 
ing "  the  waters  from  the  waters  ;  "  that  is,  an 
analysis  of  multitudinously  surging  thoughts, 
and  a  conclusion  as  to  their  true  source  and 
drift.  Impulsions  from  Christian  Science  would 
lead  me  to  subjugate  every  human  doubt,  dread, 
appetite,  and  passion  ;  for  Truth  guarantees  to 
the  faithful  a  realization  of  the  Bible  promise, 
"  Thou  shalt  have  dominion  over  all  things ! " 
whereas  antagonistic  promptings,  stealing  into 
the  fold  of  thought,  like  "  wolves  in  sheep's 
clothing,"  would  be  misleading  as  to  Mrs. 
Eddy's  words  and  motives,  and  entice  from 
stern  duty  as  by  her  inculcated. 

In  March,  1885,  Mr.  Woodbury  went  through 
Mrs.  Eddy's  primary  class,  joined  the  Associa- 
tion, and  thenceforward  became  my  warm  sup- 
porter and  coworker,  our  Teacher  declaring  him 
one  of  the  best  men  she  had  ever  taught,  and 
a  natural  Christian  Scientist. 
25 


NEW    EFFORTS. 

FROM  this  period  also  dates  a  connection 
with  the  newly  established  Christian 
Science  Journal,  — a  connection  involving  purse 
and  pen,  and  continuing  until  the  magazine's 
control  passed  into  other  hands. 

After  taking  Mrs.  Eddy's  normal  course, 
in  November,  1885,  there  opened  profounder 
knowledge  of  the  possibilities  of  good,  with  a 
corresponding  appreciation  of  the  maelstrom  of 
error.  If  the  latent  capabilities  of  righteous- 
ness were  awakened  in  the  mind  of  students, 
there  was  an  equal  liberation  of  mischievous 
proclivities,  demanding  restraint ;  a  youthful 
pupil  being  a  tender  fledgling,  needing  the  pro- 
tecting strength  of  motherly  pinions.  The 
developing  mind  is  like  a  field,  new  plowed 
and  planted,  whose  teeming  fertility  attracts 
birds  of  prey,  not  from  any  wish  for  the  good 
seed,  but  from  such  antipathy  as  engenders 
destructive  aptitude. 

It  was  a  strange  lesson,  that  the  more  good 
a  human  life  reflects,  the  more  sin  it  encounters. 

Specious  falsehoods  came  uppermost,  not  only 
by  assertion,  but  by  suggestion.  If  the  Ser- 
pent's sinuous  wiles  were  not  always  noted,  this 
was  no  fault  of  my  Teacher ;  but  it  was  difficult 
26 


to  remember  there  was  flowing  out  from  cor- 
rupted human  nature  a  steady  stream  of  evil, 
threatening  to  drown  Truth's  harbinger,  as 
foretold  in  the  Revelation  of  St.  John. 

If  Christian  Science  was  so  real,  and  sin  so 
unreal,  why  need  so  much  time  be  required  for 
watching  the  python  instead  of  the  angel  ? 

WARNINGS. 

THE  pitfalls  besetting  un wariness  were  not 
always  shunned,  and  the  Teacher's  skill- 
ful strength  was  oft  needed  for  salvation.  She 
faithfully  explained  the  machinations  of  sin  ; 
but  what  student  ever  accepted  her  teaching, 
without  mental  reservation  on  this  special  point  ? 
Who  has  ever  understood  her  thought,  without 
subsequent  corroboration  in  the  fiery  furnace 
or  the  claws  of  the  dragon  ? 

In  the  sacred  hours  of  the  class-room,  illu- 
mined with  the  supernal  light  of  revelation,  did 
we  not  bare  our  feet,  like  Moses  before  the  bush 
burning  with  holy  fire  ?  When  selfhood  was 
hushed,  we  saw  the  temple-veil  rent  asunder; 
neither  was  Gehenna  hidden  from  our  aston- 
ished gaze.  Our  Leader  opened  the  door,  that 
we  might,  like  the  Revelator,  have  glimpses  of 
the  awfulness  latent  in  mortal  mind.  Upon  our 
27 


hearts  rested  a  sacrament  of  extreme  unction, 
impelling  us  forth  to  fight  the  senses ;  count- 
ing not  the  cost  of  crucifixion,  looking  not  back- 
ward upon  Gomorrah,  pressing  anew  the  bleeding 
footprints  of  our  past  Master  and  our  present 
Mother.  As  to  how  we  have  kept  "the  faith 
once  delivered  to  the  saints,"  each  must  answer 
at  Heaven's  tribunal. 

CLERGY. 

ABOUT  this  time  some  of  my  benefited 
patients  urged  my  presentation  of  the 
subject  to  their  revered  pastor,  an  acknowledged 
spiritual  leader  in  Boston,  who  was  a  distant 
relative  of  my  husband,  through  intermarriage 
some  two  generations  ago.  This  clergyman 
refused  even  to  hear  Mrs.  Eddy  speak  in  a 
friendly  house  ;  and  a  similar  refusal  came  from 
an  Orthodox  preacher,  whose  wife  and  daughter 
had  been  somewhat  under  the  care  of  Christian 
Scientists.  Nevertheless  there  were  present  at 
this  gathering  at  least  a  hundred  people,  whose 
questions  Mrs.  Eddy  cordially  answered,  after 
her  formal  lecture. 

Perchance  one  of   these   ministers   intended 
the  amende  honorable,  by  later  arranging  for  me 
a  private  interview,  at  his  house,  with  a  very 
28 


celebrated  English   divine,  to   whom  it  was   a 
privilege  to  present  the  subject. 

SCHOOL-CHARTERS. 

IN  July,  1886,  at  the  suggestion  of  Mrs. 
Eddy,  my  charter  for  a  Christian  Science 
school  was  obtained  from  the  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts ;  and  by  her  further  advice,  initiatory 
measures  were  taken  for  establishing  this  school 
at  Lynn,  in  the  very  room  where  she  had  begun 
her  own  work ;  but  this  counsel  was  speedily 
recalled  because  of  opposition  in  that  city. 
Lawrence  was  then  proposed  as  eligible  ground, 
but  there  the  objectors  were  Christian  Scien- 
tists. "  Evidently  Boston  is  your  proper  field," 
said  the  Teacher;  and  finally  my  school  was 
located  in  the  newly  erected  Hotel  Berkshire, 
192  Dartmouth  Street,  where  during  the  next 
three  years  were  graduated  about  one  hundred 
and  fifty  students. 

Teaching  was  trying  work,  but  complaints  to 
the  Mother  were  silenced  by  her  suggestion 
that  it  was  no  more  difficult  for  others  than  for 
herself.  There  was  the  joy  of  converting 
friends  by  Truth  ;  but  this  was  counterbalanced 
by  the  responsibility  felt  for  one's  graduates, 
who  not  only  found  themselves  struggling  in  a 
29 


gulf  stream  of  good  and  evil  influence,  but  also 
plunged  their  instructor  into  contrary  psychic 
currents. 

GENERAL    CONVENTION. 

BOTH  my  husband  and  myself  were  selected 
by  Mrs.  Eddy  as  delegates  to  the  General 
Christian  Science  Convention,  held  in  New 
York  City  in  the  February  of  1886,  and  she 
did  Mr.  Woodbury  the  further  honor  of  sug- 
gesting him  as  executive  chairman ;  a  position 
he  declined  in  her  favor,  though  remaining  a 
member  of  the  committee. 

As  the  National  Association  was  now  prop- 
erly organized,  I  applied  to  the  officers  for  a 
charter  under  its  rules,  and  forthwith  formed 
Students'  Christian  Scientist  Association  Num- 
ber Three,  the  preceding  numbers,  one  and  two, 
being  assigned  to  associations  instituted  by  two 
members  of  the  Charter  Committee,  though 
our  applications  were  simultaneous. 

TRICKS    AND    TRAITS. 

A  SINGLE  motive  actuated  my  writings  for 
the  Christian  Science  Journal,  —  a   dis- 
position  to    testify   to    the    sublimity   of    my 
Teacher's  impartments,  —  and  this  motive  rose 
30 


supreme  over  all  obstacles.  When  tergiversa- 
tions were  attempted  and  ignorance  led  astray, 
—  when  mistakes  found  their  way  into  the 
Journal  itself,  —  I  fought  "  as  one  who  beateth 
the  air,"  trying  to  fan  away  the  virus  of  an 
invisible  vampire,  though  the  favoring  wind 
was  often  defeated  by  misrepresentation. 

There  were  times  when  our  depleted  regi- 
ment seemed  a  forlorn  hope  ;  nevertheless,  the 
recruiting-station  was  never  closed,  and  our 
Teacher  valiantly  grasped  the  dust-stained  ban- 
ner, and  bore  it  heroically  aloft,  till  there  were 
enlisted  fresh  Aarons  and  Hurs  to  uphold  her 
hands. 

EDITORSHIP. 

WHEN  the  acting  editor  of  the  Christian 
Science   Journal  vacated  her  office,  in 
the  closing  weeks  of  1885,  the  mantle  fell  on 
my  shoulders,  though  only  for  a  brief  season. 

The  management  of  the  Journal  professed 
partiality  for  my  contributions,  and  they  were 
generally  wrung  from  heart's  blood,  shed  in 
passing  through  the  Red  Sea,  from  which  I 
emerged  wounded,  but  thankful  for  the  insight 
as  well  as  the  deliverance,  and  yearning  to  save 
others  from  similar  misfortunes,  by  frank  expli- 
cations, which  might  touch  their  sensibilities 
31 


and  "  renew  their  strength  as  eagles  ;  "  though 
this  intent  was  often  frustrated  by  suppression 
and  alteration,  or  by  change  of  signature. 

A    BRIGHT    BOOK. 

IN  1886  there  appeared  in  a  San  Francisco 
paper,  indorsed  by  the  Association  of 
Evangelical  clergy  of  that  city,  a  severe  on- 
slaught upon  Christian  Science,  based  on  Bible 
grounds.  Under  Mrs.  Eddy's  approval  this 
diatribe  was  taken  to  an  old  acquaintance  of  my 
father,  the  Rev.  J.  Henry  Wiggin,  a  Unitarian 
clergyman,  no  longer  in  harness. 

Though  not  a  convert  to  Christian  Science, 
he  had  done  some  literary  work  for  us,  and  was 
a  firm  believer  in  fair  play ;  so  he  wrote  a 
terse,  apt,  and  logical  reply,  entitled  Christian 
Science  and  the  Bible,  by  Phare  Pleigh,  a 
brochure  which  attracted  much  attention  and  is 
still  sought  by  inquirers,  its  tenor  being  ex- 
pressed in  this  postulate :  "  If  Bible  doctrines 
and  wonders  be  true,  why  not  Christian  Science, 
which  carries  out  those  ideas,  and  aims  to  repro- 
duce those  marvels  ?  "  On  the  titlepage  in  the 
proof-sheets  appeared  my  name  as  publisher,  yet 
when  the  book  was  issued,  the  name  of  Wood- 
bury  had  given  place  to  another. 
32 


SUNDAY,  WORK. 

THOUGH  always  an  attendant  on  public 
worship,  never  did  I  become  a  church- 
member  till  1886,  when  I  united  with  the 
Church  of  Christ  (Scientist)  in  Boston.  With 
this  connection  came  another  set  of  untoward 
experiences ;  but  .there  was  no  discord  in  the 
home,  for  the  same  step  was  taken  in  Decem- 
ber, 1888,  not  only  by  my  husband,  but  also  by 
my  daughter  Gwendoline,  only  a  dozen  years  old, 
who  was  invited  to  membership  by  our  pastor, 
Mrs.  Eddy,  and  had  already  received  some 
instruction  in  the  college  class. 

From  childhood  a  Sunday-school  teacher,  I 
at  one  time  aided  Rev.  Rush  R.  Shippen,  in 
Worcester  ;  and  by  him  was  recommended  to 
the  South  Congregational  Church,  Rev.  Edward 
Everett  Hale's,  when  I  removed  to  Boston; 
whence  another  warm  letter  sent  me  to  Rev. 
Edward  A.  Horton's  Sunday-school,  in  the 
Second  Church,  situated  in  Copley  Square. 
This  last  place  I  resigned,  after  fully  imbibing 
Christian  Science,  though  the  pastor  and  the 
superintendent  heartily  urged  my  continu- 
ance. 

It  was  therefore  but  natural  that  Mrs.  Eddy 
should  ask  me  to  continue  in  the  same  line, 
33 


especially  as  it  was  partly  to  supply  my  own 
needs  that  our  Sunday-school  in  Checkering 
Hall  was  begun.  Having  already  perceived  the 
inconsistency  of  any  other  parochial  connection 
for  a  Christian  Science  family,  my  children  had 
been  withdrawn  from  Mr.  Horton's  society; 
though  we  missed  the  wonted  and  delightful 
associations  at  such  a  school,  and  were  anxious 
to  be  in  another. 

My  new  Sunday  class  increased  from  four  to 
seventy-four  in  eight  months  ;  but  haunting 
opposition  so  interfered  that  thrice  I  gave  up 
classes  I  had  gathered ;  though  each  time, 
at  Mrs.  Eddy's  kind  urgency,  renewing  the 
undertaking. 

TOWARD   THE    RISING   SUN. 

WEARY,  worn,  and  well-nigh  broken- 
hearted over  the  prospects  of  Chris- 
tian Science  in  our  city,  I  now  decided  upon 
heeding  the  advice  of  the  Teacher,  and  going 
away  from  home  for  a  season  ;  though  during 
thirteen  years  of  wedlock  my  husband  and  my- 
self had  never  been  twenty-four  hours  apart. 
Accordingly,  in  the  May  of  1887,  I  went  to 
Augusta,  Maine.  In  November  I  again  went 
thither,  and  while  there  was  requested,  by  Mrs. 
34 


Eddy,  to  write  a  history  of  sundry  infelicitous 
experiences. 

The  following  letter  speaks  for  itself,  and  has 
an  important  bearing  on  points  to  be  hereafter 
raised  in  connection  with  church  organizations. 

385  COMMONWEATH  AVENUE,  December  25,  1888. 
To    THE    CHURCH    AND    ASSOCIATION    OF  CHRISTIAN 

SCIENTISTS  IN  AUGUSTA,  MAINE. 
My  dear  brethren :  On  this  Christmas  morn  let  me 
thank  you  for  your  labors  in  Christ's  vineyard.  Let  me 
send  you  assurance  of  the  faith  that  lays  hold  of  all  our 
hearts  to-day, — that  "unto  us  a  Child  is  born,  and  the 
government  shall  be  upon  his  shoulders ;  and  his  name 
shall  be  called  Wonderful."  Accept  my  Christmas  greet- 
ings. Accept  my  prayers.  Press  on.  The  Way  is  Truth 
and  Love.  Walk  in  it.  Affectionately  yours, 

M.  B.  G.  EDDY. 

Note  this,  that  the  Augusta  church  never 
had  a  charter,  never  had  a  pastor,  never  was 
organized  ;  so  this  letter  and  these  facts  are 
alike  symbolic. 

CHURCH   LOCATION. 

A  CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE   building   was 
now   greatly   needed   in    Boston,   where 
sectarianism  shut  us  out  from  desirable  halls. 
That  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association 
was  refused  ;  and  President  Walker  was  equally 
35 


unwilling  to  admit  us  into  the  commodious 
auditorium  of  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of 
Technology. 

As  a  last  resort  was  hired  Chickering  Hall, 
at  153  Tremont  Street,  facing  the  Common,  an 
attractive  hall,  since  transformed  to  other  uses ; 
though  Mrs.  Eddy  steadfastly  protested  against 
its  lack  of  daylight. 

After  several  students  had  unsuccessfully 
tried  to  procure  a  suitable  site  for  a  new  meet- 
ing-house, she  requested  Mr.  Woodbury  to  take 
the  matter  in  hand,  which  he  did  negotiating 
the  purchase  from  the  Nathan  Matthews  family, 
for  about  eleven  thousand  dollars,  of  the  lot 
whereon  now  stands  the  edifice  completed  in 
1895. 

In  order  to  gratify  her  further  wish  for  a 
corner  lot,  Mr.  Woodbury  spent  time  and  pains 
in  replotting  the  tract  of  land  bounded  by  Nor- 
way, Falmouth,  and  St.  Paul  Streets ;  and  then, 
at  considerable  expense  and  her  request,  pre- 
pared plans  for  the  proposed  building.  Though 
unpaid  for  his  work,  it  was  gratifying  to  receive 
the  following  appreciative  message  from  the 
Teacher :  "  I  invite  you,  my  dear  student,  into 
my  class,  without  charge!"  and  Mr.  Woodbury 
accepted  this  offer,  though  finally  paying  the 
price  in  full,  with  accruing  interest. 
36 


WESTWARD. 

IN  November,  1887,  I  was  asked  by  Mrs. 
Eddy  to  visit  Colorado,  especially  the  city 
of  Denver,  where  Christian  Science  had  fallen 
into  some  disrepute.  Inexpressibly  disheart- 
ened by  the  presence  of  Achans  in  our  camp, 
pained  by  the  obloquy  besetting  measures  in 
behalf  of  fellow-workers,  having  no  caretaker 
to  leave  with  my  children,  and  lacking  both 
courage  and  means,  the  mission  was  then  de- 
clined. 

Two  months  later,  however,  the  outlook 
brightened,  making  me  willing  to  leave  Boston ; 
so  away  I  sped,  towards  the  prairies.  The  trip 
occupied  a  week,  instead  of  the  usual  three 
days,  but  not  even  my  boots  were  removed 
during  that  time.  In  Chicago  the  mercury 
marked  sixteen  degrees  below  zero  ;  and  the 
cold  steadily  increased,  till,  beyond  Omaha,  we 
plunged  into  a  Dakota  blizzard,  since  renowned 
as  the  worst  on  record.  The  transit  privations 
need  not  be  described,  nor  the  opportunities  for 
aiding  other  travelers. 

Perhaps  to  that  storm,  bringing  me  face  to  face 

with  death,  is  due  a  renewed  awakening  to  the 

depth  of  Truth.     In  a  clearer  light  could  now 

be  descried  the  cabals   of  the  year  preceding. 

37 


Solemnly  was  a  vow  registered,  to  encounter 
any  amount  of  ignominy,  if  thereby  our  cause 
might  shake  off  the  wolf  clutching  its  throat. 

In  Denver  the  time  was  filled,  night  and  day, 
with  healing  and  lecturing,  besides  teaching  a 
large  class,  in  which  were  five  married  couples, 
the  husbands  as  anxious  to  learn  as  the  wives, 
which  had  not  aforetime  been  the  case  in  that 
city ;  and  one  of  the  leading  dailies  called  at- 
tention to  the  fact  that  the  newly  arrived  Boston 
disciple  had  actually  induced  some  of  the  men 
to  study.  Moreover,  I  was  courteously  offered 
the  press  columns,  through  which  to  propagate 
my  religious  views. 

Alas  !  on  my  return  to  Boston  hope  and 
cheer  were  again  lost,  through  most  trying  mis- 
apprehensions concerning  my  recent  journey. 

A   CELEBRATED   CASE. 

OF  the  Association's  Publication  Committee 
I  was  in  1887  made  chairman  by  Mrs. 
Eddy.  Ours  was  the  unpleasant  duty  of  keep- 
ing track  of  press-attacks  anywhere  made  upon 
Christian  Science,  and  meeting  them,  so  far  as 
we  were  able,  —  a  task  requiring  the  utmost 
vigilance. 

Evil   designs   were   plainly   discernible,   and 
38 


what  was  known  as  the  West  Medford  case,  of 
Mrs.  Corner,  led  to  the  withdrawal  from  our 
ranks  of  some  forty  or  fifty  active  members. 

In  May,  1888,  by  our  Teacher's  desire,  I 
became  a  member  of  the  Christian  Scientist 
Publication  Committee,  under  whose  direction 
our  Journal  was  then  issued  ;  but  finding  myself 
never  summoned  to  business  meetings,  and 
demurring  thereat,  I  was  dropped  from  the 
committee. 

At  this  time  Mrs.  Eddy  recommended  Mr. 
Woodbury  as  her  best  successor  in  the  presi- 
dency of  the  National  Association  ;  but  he  was 
not  elected  to  the  position. 

THE   GRANITE    HILLS. 

IN  July  I  visited  New  Hampshire,  and  while 
there  was  invited  by  the  pastor  to  occupy 
the  Lisbon  Orthodox  Congregational  pulpit  on 
a  Sunday  morning,  he  listening,  in  his  family 
pew,  to  my  exposition  of  Christian  Science, — 
an  occurrence  considered  unique  in  the  history 
of  our  movement. 

Thence  I  went  to  Mt.  Washington,  spoke  a 
word   for   Christian    Science   in    the    Tip-Top 
House,  and  was  glad  to  donate  to  that  famous 
hostelry  some  of  the  writings  of  our  Leader. 
39 


BAPTISMAL   SCENE. 

ON  the  last  Sunday  in  February,  1888,  was 
held  the  only  service  of  this  sort  ever 
celebrated  among  us,  —  the  baptism  of  twenty- 
nine  children,  including  a  few  babes.  No  water 
was  used,  but  over  each  little  one  Mrs.  Eddy 
lifted  her  hands,  pronouncing  its  name,  and 
these  words  :  "  May  the  baptism  of  Christ,  with 
the  Holy  Spirit,  cleanse  you  from  sin,  sickness, 
and  death  !  "  Among  these  receiving  the  rite 
were  the  two  older  Woodbury  children. 

A   GOOD   FIGHT. 

IN  June,  1888,  at  the  meeting  of  the  National 
Association,  at  Chicago,  there  dawned  upon 
me  revelations  of  a  New  Heaven  and  New 
Earth.  Boston  students  were  waking  to  the 
issues  of  the  hour,  though  divided  in  opinion 
as  to  whether  they  ought  not  to  follow  some 
self-appointed  Joshua ;  but  most  students  from 
other  sections  were  determined  to  abide  by  our 
great  Teacher,  and  it  was  my  bounden  and  joy- 
ful duty  to  side  with  this  latter  contingent. 
Silence  would  have  been  my  choice  at  this 
gathering,  but  for  our  Teacher's  request  that  I 
speak  for  Boston. 

At  this  convention   Mrs.    Eddy  desired   my 
40 


membership  of  the  Executive  Committee,  but 
my  husband  was  elected  instead. 

PROSPERITY. 

T7NRAPTURED  by  our  Teacher's  glorious 
-I—-/  words  and  conquest  in  Chicago,  the  next 
week  found  me  in  Montreal,  for  pioneer  work 
across  the  border,  where  I  gained  some  forty 
students,  besides  four  others,  who  later  were 
persuaded  to  come  to  our  primal  inspirer. 

Prosperity  attended  my  Boston  academy, 
though  watch  and  ward  were  needed  over  the 
interests  of  the  association  growing  out  of  it. 
Spiritual  sustenance  was  also  indispensable  for 
my  Denver  adherents.  Then  there  were  occa- 
sional trips  to  Augusta  and  Montreal,  where 
Christian  Science  labor  was  necessary. 

To  these  duties  must  be  added  the  almost 
daily  demand  for  a  public  word,  the  support  of 
our  periodical,  church,  and  parental  association, 
all  making  increased  drafts  on  wallet  and  faith, 
while  domestic  cares  could  be  neither  lightened 
nor  evaded  ;  but  as  every  right-born  child  brings 
love  with  it,  so  with  each  burden  came  divine 
grace  for  its  bearing,  the  laborer  being  calmed 
by  turmoil,  uplifted  by  trials,  sweetened  by  the 
jewel  of  adversity ;  such  friction  unwittingly 

41 


elevating  discipleship  higher  and  higher,  from 
Gethsemane  up  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  even 
towards  the  summit  of  Transfiguration. 

While  engaged  with  a  Montreal  class,  in  1888, 
came  a  summons  to  attend  the  only  obstetric 
class  ever  held  by  Mrs.  Eddy,  conjointly  with 
her  adopted  son,  Dr.  Foster-Eddy,  his  first 
effort  in  this  direction,  and  her  second  experience 
with  a  helper  in  the  class-room,  —  changes  which 
marked  a  Christian  Science  epoch,  and  which 
to  me  were  the  more  gratefully  helpful,  because 
the  instructions  were  shared  with  my  husband. 

Cheered  by  the  new  inspiration  I  called  my 
own  students  together  for  a  fresh  course  of  six 
lessons,  and  widened  my  extemporaneous  public 
efforts. 

In  March,  1889,  my  Teacher  summoned  me  to 
the  last  session  of  a  primary  class,  in  which 
were  six  of  my  own  students,  who  had,  by  my 
advice,  betaken  themselves  to  the  higher  guide. 
To  the  class  also  was  invited  my  daughter, 
though  she  was  dismissed  after  the  first  lesson ; 
Mrs.  Eddy  declaring  this  not  a  fit  class  for  a 
girl  so  young,  though  later  telling  Gwendoline's 
mother  that  this  one  forenoon  was  all  the  child 
then  needed.  Nevertheless,  her  quaffing  this 
solitary  draft,  direct  from  the  fountain-head,  has 
been  a  great  gratification  to  our  household. 
42 


ORGANIZATION. 

AT  this  period  the  various  normal  students 
were  largely  engaged  in  chartering  and 
founding    branch    churches    in    the    order    of 
Christian  Science. 

I  followed  suit,  though  against  my  own 
instincts,  procuring  a  charter  and  organizing  a 
church  in  Montreal,  Canada,  the  pastor  whereof 
was  a  student  of  Mrs.  Eddy's ;  but  he  preached 
only  a  few  weeks  before  a  contrary  breeze  set 
flying  the  danger-signals.  Our  Teacher  ex- 
plained that  material  churches  were  among 
what  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  calls  "works 
of  supererogation "  ;  so  this  church  was  dis- 
solved, that  fact  might  not  be  lost  in  symbol. 

FAMILIES   ESTRANGED. 

THE  National  Association  of  1889  was  held 
on  June  n,  in  Cleveland,  Ohio. 
A  bulwark  was  needed   to    stem    the   erotic 
tide,    favored    in    some    quarters ;   and    moral 
stamina  was  the   more    essential,  because   the 
odium  of  increasing  divorce  and  domestic  alien- 
ation, the  land   over,  was  often   attributed   to 
Christian  Science. 

Certain  patent  domestic  misfortunes  among 
mental    workers    naturally    brought     discredit 
43 


upon  Christian  Science,  and  increased  my 
strenuous  advocacy  of  the  imperative  integrity 
of  the  home. 

Some  essays  of  mine,  on  this  very  subject, 
were  later  rejected  by  the  Christian  Science 
Journal,  as  not  coming  within  its  scope ;  though 
it  ought  here  to  be  said  that  the  manager  of 
this  magazine  at  the  time  was  a  gentleman  pos- 
sibly better  equipped  for  his  post  than  any  one 
previously  in  charge,  if  we  perhaps  except  the 
Rev.  J.  Henry  Wiggin,  who  never  pretended  to 
imbibe  the  doctrines  of  Christian  Science  but 
is  always  the  friend  of  justice,  and  ever  willing 
to  help  earnest  truth-seekers  to  express  their 
ideas  clearly  and  effectively. 

PULPIT    SHADOWS. 

ON  July  15,  1889,  came  a  notification,  from 
the  church-clerk,  that,  at  a  special  meet- 
ing, when  not  present,  I  had  been  unanimously 
requested  to  fill  the  Chickering  Hall  pulpit  the 
following  Sunday,  a  proposition  accepted,  — 
after  much  protest  on  Mr.  Woodbury's  part,  — 
on  condition  that  the  day's  expenses  solely 
devolve  upon  me,  and  not  upon  a  depleted 
treasury ;  but  this  entire  plan  was  overturned  by 
a  series  of  events  hardly  worth  Christian  men- 

44 


tion.  As  one  result,  however,  Mrs.  Eddy  wrote 
me  that  so  old  a  student  in  Christian  Science 
should  no  longer  rely  upon  her  personal  advice, 
but  accept  Infinite  guidance. 

In  this  dilemma,  comfort  came  in  the  hus- 
band's tonic  words  :  "  If  your  Teacher  did  not 
know  you  could  sustain  the  load,  she  would  not 
bind  it  on  your  conscience." 

ACCIDENT  AND   DEMONSTRATION. 

IN  the  midsummer  of  1889  there  were  healing 
and  preaching  to  be  done  in  Bangor. 
Thence  another  visit  was  paid  the  Maine  capi- 
tal, where  a  class  was  interrupted  by  the  news 
that  my  husband,  visiting  with  our  boy  in  Man- 
chester-by-the-Sea,  on  Cape  Ann,  had  severely 
injured  his  back  by  an  outdoor  fall.  Unwilling 
abruptly  to  forsake  the  higher  duty  of  teaching, 
class-lessons  and  public  lectures  were  continued 
a  week  later,  when  I  rejoined  Mr.  Woodbury, 
who  meanwhile  had  returned  to  Boston,  with  no 
unusual  help  beyond  a  friendly  arm,  and  re- 
sumed his  office  work,  the  ribs  —  which  had 
been  broken  off  near  the  spine,  besides  being 
otherwise  fractured — having  reset  themselves, 
without  pain  or  surgery. 


45 


CHANGE  OF    BASE. 

IT  was  generally  understood  among  Mrs. 
Eddy's  normal  students,  that  they  should 
not  themselves  teach  affluent  or  prominent 
applicants,  however  worthy,  but  send  them  to 
her  college  to  quench  their  thirst  ;  and  this  we 
gladly  did. 

While  teaching  in  Bath,  Maine,  in  August  of 
this  same  year,  Mrs.  Eddy  published  a  notice  in 
the  newspapers,  stating  that  she  had  closed  her 
college.  This  notice  was  as  follows,  and  can  be 
found  in  the  September,  1889,  issue  of  the 
Christian  Science  Journal : 

MASSACHUSETTS    METAPHYSICAL    COLLEGE: 
NOTICE. 

There  are  one  hundred  and  sixty  applications  lying  on 
the  desk  before  me  for  the  primary  class  in  the  Massachu- 
setts Metaphysical  College,  and  I  cannot  do  my  best  work 
for  a  class  that  contains  over  one  quarter  of  that  number. 
If  all  these  should  be  taught,  another  large  number  would 
be  waiting  for  the  same  class,  and  the  other  three  courses 
delayed. 

The  work  is  more  than  one  person  can  accomplish  ;  but 
the  demand  is  for  my  exclusive  teaching,  and  dissatisfac- 
tion with  any  other,  which  leaves  me  no  other  alternative 
but  to  give  up  the  whole  thing. 

Deeply  regretting  the  disappointment  this  must  occa- 
sion, and  with  grateful  acknowledgments  to  the  public, 
I  now  close  my  college. 

(Signed)  MARY  BAKER  G.  EDDY. 

46 


Of  course  this  implied  a  complete  change  in 
cooperative  methods.  Therefore,  on  the  com- 
pletion of  my  Bath  lessons,  September  found 
me  at  home,  seeking  no  human  counsel,  but 
assiduously  praying  for  God's  leadership  in  this 
deviating  highway. 

The  cross  was  indeed  changed,  but  not  light- 
ened, nor  set  abloom  with  roses.  Appeals  for 
instruction  were  coming  from  far  and  near,  —  my 
academy  being  the  outcome,  not  only  of  familiar- 
ity with  Christian  Science,  but  of  an  entire 
life-work. 

Much  had  been  endured,  both  in  my  school's 
incipiency,  and  in  keeping  it,  through  nearly 
three  years,  in  such  pure  accord  with  Divine 
Science  as  brought  it  to  a  point  beyond  our 
most  sanguine  expectations  ;  for  prosperity  had 
been  within  a  hand-grasp.  The  irksome  task  of 
blazing  the  trees  had  been  accomplished,  leaving 
a  well-defined  lane  through  the  forest,  with  the 
surety  of  a  cordial  welcome  at  the  end.  Now 
this  hope  was  ruthlessly  shattered. 

These  worldly  considerations,  however,  were 
in  nowise  ingredients  of  my  thought ;  but  the 
anxiety  to  discern  present  duty,  so  that  my 
action  should  properly  supplement  my  Teacher's. 
Not  without  fear  and  trembling  was  the  decision 
reached  to  withdraw  from  renumerative  work, 
47 


retire  personally  into  the  background,  and  put 
the  Book  (Science  and  Health)  foremost ;  but 
this  determination  was  at  last  made,  and 
promptly  communicated  to  her,  and  to  all  others 
whom  it  concerned. 

From  Mrs.  Eddy  no  reply  was  at  once  re- 
ceived ;  but  the  next  month  she  dissolved  the 
Christian  Scientist  Association.  In  October 
she  dissolved  her  college  ;  and  in  the  November 
following  sent  me  an  earnest  letter,  with  a  copy 
of  the  resolutions  by  which  this  result  was 
achieved,  and  a  request  that  I  insert  them  in  the 
Boston  dailies, — a  duty  gladly  performed. 

ADRIFT  FROM   THE    CHURCH. 

THE  next  half-year  was  replete  with  hard- 
ships. Consistently  with  the  departure 
from  medicine,  when  we  embraced  the  healing 
doctrines  of  Science  and  Health,  we  now  felt 
that  disconnection  with  every  visible  church 
should  be  the  outcome  of  disbelief  in  such  or- 
ganizations ;  and  this  step  was  accordingly  taken, 
Mrs.  Eddy  being  duly  forewarned  of  our  in- 
tention ;  nor  did  many  weeks  elapse  before  she 
disbanded  the  Boston  Church  altogether,  for 
reasons  stated  in  her  previous  withdrawal  from 
its  pastorate. 

48 


From  the  National  Association  we  also  with- 
drew, Mrs.  Eddy  and  the  officers  being  properly 
notified  of  our  action.  Whether  these  acts  were 
the  outcome  of  untempered  zeal  on  our  part,  or 
were  the  response  to  a  divine  call,  the  future 
history  of  the  cause  must  disclose. 

DISSOLUTION   AND  DISCIPLINE. 

THE  next  step  was  the  termination  of  my 
academy,  when  its  directors  heard  a 
statement  of  the  new  condition  and  convictions. 
Then  the  Woodbury  academic  association  held 
a  meeting,  and  listened  to  an  explanation  as  to 
the  extinction.  Though  with  a  few  exceptions 
faithful  to  my  leadership,  they  voted  to  discon- 
tinue their  beloved  society,  and  notify  the 
National  Association  of  our  charter's  surrender ; 
albeit  the  fact  that  no  other  schools  or  associa- 
tions were  given  up  seemed  peculiar,  as  we  had 
never  even  dreamed  of  being  the  Teacher's 
sole  imitators. 

Though  often  importuned  to  do  so,  never  was 
I  presumptuous  enough  to  teach  any  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  direct  pupils,  or  in  anywise  interfere 
with  the  rights  of  her  other  authorized  graduates. 

Practice  and  patience  developed  power  in 
silencing  the  jarring  testimony  of  the  physical 
49 


senses,  and  apprehending  ("laying  hold  upon  ") 
that  by  which,  as  Paul  phrases  it,  "  I  am  ap- 
prehended "  (or  "  laid  hold  upon  "),  the  cross  of 
Christ.  This  was  evinced  by  my  little  flock, 
who  decided  to  have  no  more  Sunday  preaching, 
or  even  weekly  meetings  for  religious  discus- 
sions, but  to  spend  their  sacred  hours  alone,  in 
communication  with  the  Book  and  the  Bible. 


WITH   THE    LEADER. 

IN  January  of  the  new  year  I  enjoyed  a  visit 
with  my  ever-beloved  Teacher,  who  gave 
comfort  in  these  words,  though  they  were  not 
at  the  moment  received  in  their  deeper  import : 
"Go  home  and  be  happy.  Commit  thy  ways 
unto  the  Lord.  Trust  Him,  and  He  will  bring 
it  to  pass." 

RENEWED   MOTHERHOOD. 

HERE  this  narrative  approaches  a   crucial 
point.     On  the  morning  of  June  1 1,  1 890, 
there  was  born  to  me  a  baby  boy ;  though,  till 
his  sharp  birth-cry  saluted  my  ears,  I  had  not 
realized   that   prospective    maternity   was    the 
interpretation  of  preceding  months  of  poignant 
physical  discomfort,  not  unreasonably  attributed 
50 


to  other  physiological  causes  and  changes,  — 
growing  out  of  my  age,  and  former  reliance  upon 
medical  opinion,  —  pointing  in  the  direction  of 
some  fungoid  formation. 

Even  the  doctor,  contemplating  our  unpre- 
paredness,  could  not  help  an  exclamation  of 
surprise ;  though  not  the  mother  absorbed  his 
attention,  but  the  child,  with  its  wholesome 
beauty  and  serene  atmosphere. 

An  hour  after  the  birth  I  rose  and  bathed. 
In  the  afternoon  I  was  up  and  dressed,  and  at 
night  dined  with  my  tamily.  The  next  day  I 
went  out  of  doors,  and  every  day  thereafter,  the 
resumption  of  customary  good  health  leading 
me  into  the  open  air.  We  named  our  boy  Prince 
Woodbury,  partly  because  he  came  into  our 
family  as  a  veritable  harbinger  of  peace. 

BETHESDA. 

AVOIDING    the   barbaric   outburst  of  the 
Fourth  of  July,  we  went,  the  day  before, 
to  Ocean  Point,  for  a  Maine  summering. 

While  there  occurred  the  thought  of  baptiz- 
ing little  Prince,  in  a  singularly  beautiful  salt 
pool,  whose  rocky  bottom  was  dry  at  low  tide 
and  overflowing  at  high  tide,  but  specially  at- 
tractive at  mid  tide,  with  its  two  feet  of  crystal 
51 


water.  A  crowd  of  people  had  assembled  on 
the  neighboring  bluffs,  when  I  brought  him 
from  our  cottage  not  far  away,  and  laid  him 
three  times  prayerfully  in  the  pool ;  and  when 
he  was  lifted  therefrom,  they  joined  in  a  spon- 
taneously appropriate  hymn.  While  lying  be- 
neath the  surface  his  baby  eyes  were  open,  and 
smiling  upward ;  and  this  composure  under 
water  continues  unto  this  day,  for  he  loves  it  as 
his  native  element. 

GROWTH   IN   GRACE. 

r  I  ^HE  isolation  of  our  lonely  retreat  brought 
A  leisure  for  contemplation  ;  and  motherly 
feelings  became  potentially  uplifting,  my  babe's 
existence  deepening  my  gaze  into  a  world  hith- 
erto unknown.  His  loving  outcry  banished 
pain  ;  and  his  tiny  hand  waved  a  sea  of  turbu- 
lent thought-billows  into  a  humbling  sense  of 
peace.  In  solitary  vigils,  not  so  much  the 
Teacher,  or  messenger,  as  the  teaching,  or  divine 
message,  absorbed  my  thought. 

A  new  sense  transfigured  earth  and  sky. 
Fearsome  spectres  faded  in  the  light  of  celestial 
dawn.  Materiality  resolved  itself  more  abso- 
lutely into  subjectivity  ;  and  mortal  beliefs,  for- 
merly distinct  as  forms  of  ill-health,  seemed 
52 


fast  melting  into  their  native  mist  of  nothing- 
ness, described  in  the  Genesis  narrative. 

STRAITS   AND   STRESS. 

/r~"*HRISTIAN  Science  work  had  sometimes 
\*s.  won  me  an  income  of  several  thou- 
sand dollars  a  year ;  but  this  revenue  now 
ceased.  In  giving  up  both  teaching  and  heal- 
ing, the  cost  was  not  uncounted  ;  though,  just 
before  the  change,  debts  had  been  incurred 
with  reference  to  future  classes.  Large  sums, 
due  for  services  rendered,  remain  unpaid  unto 
this  day  ;  but,  after  a  brief  season,  worriment 
was  overcome  by  the  consciousness  of  right 
motives,  and  willingness  to  abide  the  divine 
pleasure. 

A  strange  posture  of  affairs  !  None  approved 
my  course,  while  many  doubted  my  sanity,  if 
not  my  integrity.  Was  there  no  balm  in  Gilead, 
to  help  a  disciple  whose  future  had  but  recently 
been  so  brilliant  ?  Must  her  supplications  be 
vain  in  her  extremity  ?  Oh  God  of  the  lonely, 
come  to  others  with  comforting  guidance,  as  to 
one  heart  then  Thou  earnest.  Feed  them  with 
the  manna  of  Principle  !  Quench  their  thirst 
at  the  wellspring  of  Love ! 

Applicants  for  aid  and  instruction  had  to 
53 


be  turned  away,  money  in  hand.  Though  some 
patient  would  indignantly  exclaim,  "She  can 
heal  me  in  an  hour,  if  she  will  let  me  see  her ! " 
yet,  for  nearly  two  years,  every  such  dollar  was 
refused,  while  the  constant  exertion  was  to 
conform  my  life  to  our  Leader's  last  message. 

During  this  interval,  came  occasional  letters 
from  my  Teacher,  filled,  as  aforetime,  with  affec- 
tionate counsel.  In  some  way  relief  must 
come,  and  so  it  did  ;  for,  through  unexpected 
channels,  providential  aid  flowed  into  the  family 
coffers. 

NEW    HOME   AND   WORK. 

IN  September,  1890,  our  return  to  Boston 
found  us  in  great  need  of  a  more  commodi- 
ous home,  and,  at  my  earnest  solicitation,  Mr. 
Woodbury  bought  the  house  we  subsequently 
occupied,  No.  412  Newbury  Street,  in  range 
with  the  one  formerly  occupied  by  our  Teacher, 
on  Commonwealth  Avenue. 

With  the  New  Year  of  1891  came  the  con- 
viction that  healing  and  teaching  were  again  in 
order,  though  by  no  means  under  the  old  regime. 

One  by  one  fresh  students  appeared,  till,  in 
the  next  five  years,  they  outnumbered  those  of 
my  former  academy.  Usually  my  teaching- 
price  has  been  a  hundred  dollars  for  twelve 
54 


lessons  ;  but  for  a  year  or  two,  at  that  period,  it 
was  two  hundred,  —  twice  the  amount  charged 
by  Mrs.  Eddy's  other  students,  save  in  a  few 
exceptional  cases. 

THE    RENEWED   CHURCH. 

ON  September  23,  1893,  Mrs.  Eddy  reorgan- 
ized her  church.  Not  for  another  twelve- 
month, however,  did  I  try  to  mingle  with  her 
students,  but  maintained  the  practice,  acquired 
during  the  few  preceding  years,  of  spending 
worship-time  with  the  Book,  the  Bible,  and  my 
family.  Though  non-attendants  at  the  Chris- 
tian Science  meetings,  we  espoused  no  other 
doctrine,  and  convened  no  public  meetings  of 
any  sort ;  nor  did  I  meet  my  students  socially 
more  than  three  times  in  five  years ;  inasmuch 
as  all  their  instructor  possessed,  her  students 
likewise  possessed,  —  God  and  the  Word. 

Meanwhile  Mrs.  Eddy  had  removed  her  home 
to  Concord,  N.  H.  There,  in  May,  1894,  I  was 
told  by  her  that  she  had  felt  the  great  need  of 
a  church  for  the  good  of  humanity.  Under 
these  circumstances  I  naturally  wished  to  help 
her  new  organization  ;  but  she  said,  in  response 
to  several  proposed  plans,  "  Wait,  and  Love  will 
open  the  way." 

Early  in  1895,  in  accordance  with  her  desire, 
55 


expressed  through  the  Christian  Science  Journal 
and  otherwise,  I  asked  admission  to  the  Mother 
Church  ;  and  the  request  was  partially  granted 
in  April,  the  petitioner  being  admitted  on  a  pro- 
bation of  two  years.  Though  hiring  and  occu- 
pying a  seat  in  the  new  meeting-house,  dedi- 
cated that  winter,  no  cordial  welcome  or  fellow- 
ship greeted  me  ;  and  my  uplifted  voice  met  with 
scant  approval  in  the  Friday  evening  conference. 

SACRIFICE. 

MY  income  from  Christian  Science  in  the 
year  1894  had  amounted  to  several  thou- 
sand dollars ;  but  now,  as  five  years  before, 
monetary  considerations  were  sacrificed  upon 
the  shrine  of  Love.  During  1895,  and  part  of 
1896,  all  applications  for  instruction,  and  most  of 
those  for  treatment,  were  turned  aside,  the 
applicants  being  sent  to  95  Falmouth  Street, 
Boston,  the  church-headquarters  for  Christian 
Science  healers  and  teachers.  Moreover,  I  ad- 
vised my  students  to  seek  union  with  the 
Mother  Church,  and  attend  regularly  its  meet- 
ings, when  locality  rendered  this  feasible, — ad- 
vice heartily  accepted ;  but,  so  far  as  I  am  in- 
formed, no  reply  whatever  was  vouchsafed  the 
requests  of  my  students  or  my  daughter.  On 
56 


the  contrary,  all  my  recognized  friends  were  cold- 
shouldered,  like  their  teacher. 

At  the  Friday  evening  meeting,  the  last  week 
in  October,  1895, 1  spoke  virtually  as  follows  : 

Were  I  able  to  remember  all  the  experiences  given  here 
by  honest  hearts,  I  should  have  a  treasure  of  pearls  in- 
deed ;  but,  though  my  memory  may  not  wholly  retain 
them,  they  will  exist  in  mind,  and  continue  to  do  good. 

We  know  how  tenderly  the  Master  took  note  of  little 
things,  —  the  widow's  mite,  the  sparrow's  fall,  the  very 
hairs  of  our  heads ;  but  that  did  not  cause  him  to  lose 
sight  of  the  greater  demonstrations  crowding  his  career. 
It  is  well  to  offer  our  little  gifts  ;  but  surely,  to  this  shrine, 
we  should  also  bring  our  best.  All  these  testimonies  go 
to  prove  conclusively  one  point,  —  that  the  leaves  of  the 
Tree  of  Life  are  "  for  the  healing  of  the  nations."  We, 
who  believe  that  this  tree  typifies  Divine  Science,  —  and  that 
its  leaves  are  the  component  thoughts  of  the  One  Mind 
which  is  God,  —  believe  also  that  these  leaves  come  reflected 
as  food  for  human  thought  in  two  ways :  abstractly  and 
technically,  through  Science  and  Health ;  but,  vitally  and 
immanently,  through  the  earth-life  of  one  whom  we  love 
to  name  the  "Word  made  flesh,"  and  dwelling  among 
us. 

If  the  vignette  of  this  woman,  which  has  appeared  on 
the  pages  of  history,  does  not  glow  as  yet  in  all  the  beauty 
of  its  spiritual  outline,  it  may  be  on  account  of  the  many 
crude  and  mediocre  attempts  (my  own  possibly  among  the 
number)  to  reproduce  it.  The  future  will  give  its  true 
perspective. 

And  what  of  the  other  tree,  the  Tree  of  the  Knowledge 
of  Good  and  Evil !  May  its  leaves  not  represent  the  sum 

57 


total  of  the  surging  opinions,  conceptions,  delusions,  laws, 
and  prophecies  of  mankind,  ever  since  human  nature 
earned  a  history?  and  are  not  our  mortal  minds  simply 
bundles  of  these  beliefs,  bound,  by  ancestral  cords,  into 
mental  fagots,  ready  to  be  burned  by  the  torch  of  Truth! 

May  we  not  feel  that  the  healing  is  the  action  of  the 
leaves  of  the  true  tree  upon  the  leaves  of  the  false  tree,  an 
influence  which  must  go  on  till  every  error  be  destroyed  ? 

This  brings  me  to  a  question  so  often  asked,  Do  Chris- 
tian Scientists  give  or  take  medicine?  I  answer,  Yes, — 
daily  and  hourly.  What  is  the  medicine?  The  leaves  of 
the  Tree  of  Life.  It  has  been  humorously  said  that  Chris- 
tian Scientists  are  the  only  class  of  physicians  who  dare 
take  their  own  physic,  or  to  prescribe  for  their  own 
families ;  and  I  know  of  no  other  remedy  of  which  it  can 
be  said,  —  the  more  one  takes  of  it,  the  better  he  is. 

On  the  following  Monday  my  name  was 
dropped  from  the  membership  roll,  the  official 
notification  specifying  no  charge  ;  nor  was  there 
any  citation  before  the  church  or  its  officers. 
However,  I  was  willing  to  be  smitten  on  both 
cheeks,  and,  with  my  children  and  students,  con- 
tinued to  attend  every  service,  until,  early  in  Jan- 
uary, the  money  paid  for  pew-hire  in  the  church 
was  returned  me  by  mail,  with  a  notification  that 
no  longer  could  our  family  be  allowed  to  occupy 
seats.  But  what  of  our  previous  monthly  offer- 
ings ?  Were  those  former  dollars  less  tainted 
with  heresy  ? 

In  a  letter  from  Mrs.  Eddy  to  my  husband 
58 


and  myself,  dated  January  28,  1896,  was   this 
passage : 

I  did  not  know  that  a  church-meeting  was  called,  and  a 
vote  taken  to  prevent  your  leasing  seats  in  our  Church. 
Had  I  known  such  a  movement  was  premeditated,  I  should 
have  objected  to  it. 

On  April  4,  1 896,  I  was  formally  notified,  by 
letter,  that  I  had  been  "excommunicated  for- 
ever from  the  First  Church  of  Christ,  Scientist, 
in  Boston,  Mass." 

This  excommunication  was  published  in  the 
June,  1896,  issue  of  the  Christian  Science  Jour- 
nal; and  Mrs.  Eddy,  in  a  letter  dated  June  n, 
1896,  wrote  me  that  she  had  not  advised  the 
excommunication,  nor  known  of  its  publication 
until  she  read  it  in  the  Journal ;  and  that  she 
had  that  day  sent  to  Mr.  William  B.  Johnson, 
the  clerk  of  the  church,  the  following  telegram  : 

I  did  not  advise  it,  or  know  that  you  published  Wood- 
bury's  excommunication,  till  reading  it.  Say  and  do  noth- 
ing more  about  her. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  the  date  of 
this  excommunication  (April  4,  1896)  I  was 
neither  a  member  of  the  church,  nor  an  appli- 
cant for  membership,  had  no  seats  in  the  edifice, 
and  had  not  attended  service  there  for  about 
three  months  ;  yet  no  reasons  were  adduced  to 
59 


justify  the  absurdity  of  excommunicating  a 
person  not  identified  with  the  organization  in 
any  particular. 

THE    TRUE    VINE. 

SO  profound  has  been  my  trust  in  God's 
healing  method,  as  revealed  through  Chris- 
tian Science,  and  so  convincing  the  proofs 
vouchsafed  me,  that  never  since  1880,  have  I 
once  turned  for  aid  to  material  medicine,  either 
for  myself,  or  any  other  member  of  the  family. 

Illnesses  have  sometimes  assumed  severe 
forms ;  but,  with  patience,  hope,  and  courage, 
I  have  clung  to  my  mental  system  of  thera- 
peutics until  health  was  restored. 

The  text-book,  Science  and  Health,  in  all 
these  past  years  has  been  my  daily  companion, 
adviser,  friend,  and  inspirer.  From  its  pages 
comes  strength  to  endure  trials,  resist  tempta- 
tions ;  while  consolation  and  calm  float  ever  in 
upon  my  sense,  in  such  abundance  that  never 
do  my  feet  long  to  stray  into  any  other  fold 
whatever,  wherein  sheep  and  shepherd  attempt 
to  thrive  by  methods  not  prescribed  in  its 
teachings. 

GENEROSITY. 

IN    self-defence   one   thing   should    here    be 
declared,  even  though  modesty  forbids. 
60 


During  my  years  of  effort  in  Christian 
Science,  not  one,  among  the  thousands  apply- 
ing to  me  for  aid,  has  been  turned  away 
because  of  poverty.  The  poor  have  been 
always  with  me.  More  has  been  given  than 
received.  In  1895  and  1896,  through  my 
husband's  ready  help,  I  paid  out  three  times 
as  much  as  I  earned. 

Partially,  or  wholly,  he  and  I  have  clothed 
and  supported  entire  households.  Loans  have 
remained  unpaid ;  and  large  sums  have  been 
given  to  needy  persons,  sometimes  exceeding  a 
thousand  dollars  to  a  single  household.  My 
family  has  paid  Mrs.  Eddy  the  full  amount  re- 
quired by  her  for  our  tuition;  and  I  lavishly 
aided  the  Church  Building  Fund,  to  forward  the 
purchase  of  the  land  upon  which  the  Boston 
edifice  was  afterwards  erected. 

Prior  to  the  dissolution  of  the  church,  in 
1889,  I  was  one  of  the  largest  contributors 
towards  its  running  expenses. 

I  have  been  a  liberal  purchaser  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  works,  buying  hundreds  of  copies  of 
Science  and  Health,  which  I  began,  years 
ago,  to  supply  gratis,  not  only  to  persons  of 
limited  means,  but  to  physicians,  professors, 
clergymen,  schools,  and  public  libraries.  I  pub- 
lished, through  the  firm  of  Oliver  Ditson  &  Co., 
•  61 


and  also  sold,  fifteen  hundred  copies  of  Mrs. 
Eddy's  hymn,  Christ  My  Refuge,  the  net  pro- 
ceeds swelling  the  Church  Building  Fund. 

From  its  outset  I  adopted  the  Christian 
Science  Journal  into  my  heart,  and  labored  for 
it  assiduously,  increasing  its  list  of  readers  by 
hundreds,  though  this  involved  the  payment,  by 
myself,  of  many  a  subscription. 

I  obtained  for  its  columns  the  advertisements 
of  leading  business  firms,  —  and  this  at  a  time 
when  funds  were  much  needed.  By  my  unaided 
efforts,  copies  of  the  magazine  were  each  month 
placed  on  sale  at  every  railroad  station  and 
leading  bookstore  in  Boston  ;  and  my  notice  of 
the  contents  of  each  issue  was  published  in 
several  leading  Boston  papers.  I  bought  and 
circulated  a  hundred  or  two  copies  of  each 
Journal;  and  once,  when  there  was  a  special 
need,  I  purchased  five  hundred  copies,  for  dis- 
tribution broadcast  over  the  country. 

During  the  years  in  which  I  thus  held  a 
laboring  oar,  I  was  happy  in  the  work,  for  the 
waif  was  well-nigh  friendless ;  and  even  though 
I  knew  such  arduous  duties  might  not  always 
be  needed,  there  was  joy  in  working,  as  one 
should  pray,  in  the  closet. 

Many  persons  applying  for  instructions  I 
have  advised  to  study  with  another  Christian 
62 


Science  instructor,  a   course  involving  the  loss 
of  dollars  by  the  hundreds. 

Lessons  and  treatment  have  been  offered  and 
bestowed  without  charge.  Families  of  several 
members  have  been  taught  for  a  single  fee  ;  and 
whole  classes  have  been  instructed  without  a 
penny's  return,  —  an  example  not,  to  my  knowl- 
edge, repeated  by  any  other  Christian  Scientist. 
In  February,  1896,  thirty-three  pupils  were  thus 
taught,  the  course  requiring  a  fortnight. 

Furniture  and  house-rent  have  been  contrib- 
uted freely  to  kinsfolk  and  students  stranded 
by  misfortune. 

In  fact,  so  far  from  being  mercenary,  my 
almsgiving  has  often  been  beyond  my  means; 
though  in  many  instances  the  charity  has  appar- 
ently been  wasted ;  for  I  have  learned  to  know, 
with  an  old  writer,  that  "  there  are  some  who 
bear  a  grudge,  even  to  those  who  do  them  good." 

"Let  not  your  left  hand  know  what  the  right 
hand  doeth  "  is  the  Lord's  command  and  Chris- 
tian reluctance  has  heretofore  precluded  the 
avowal  of  facts,  now  referred  to,  only  because 
circumstances  so  demand  ;  and  it  is  hoped  these 
statements  will  not  be  misunderstood  by  those 
whose  opinion  I  value,  especially  students  who 
have  so  abundantly  assisted  me  with  their  own 
benefactions  to  those  in  want. 
63 


Moreover,  my  delight  in  spreading  what  to 
me  was  the  Gospel,  has  been  an  incentive  to  my 
husband's  steady  aid  in  this  direction,  when  my 
own  receipts  were  too  meagre. 

ERRANT    MISSIVES. 

GREAT  errors  oft  from  little  causes  spring. 
Gail    Hamilton    once    wrote   a   pungent 
essay  on   the   Total   Depravity   of    Inanimate 
Things. 

To  such  depravity  may  perchance  be  laid  the 
miscarriage  of  important  letters  to  Mrs.  Eddy, 
and  from  her  to  me,  some  of  which  are  referred 
to  in  this  narrative,  which  have  not  been  returned 
from  the  dead-letter  office,  yet  are  reported  as 
never  reaching  their  proper  destination. 

STRAIGHTFORWARDNESS. 

IN  my  curative  methods,  no  thought-influence 
has  ever  been  brought  to  bear  upon  a 
patient  or  student,  that  might  not  be  proclaimed 
to  the  four  winds  of  the  compass  ;  and  rarely  do 
I  use  the  silent  argument  in  preference  to  the 
spoken  or  written  word,  because  open  treatment 
vastly  lessens  the  possibility  of  misapprehension 
on  the  part  of  the  recipient. 

The  Golden  Rule  is,  and  always  has  been,  the 
keynote  of  genuine  Christian  Science. 
64 


CREDO. 

I  BELIEVE  that  God,  in  Jesus  His  Christ, 
manifests  Life  Eternal,  whereby  mortals 
may  be  delivered  from  all  evil ;  as  is  demon- 
strated in  Science  and  Health,  a  digest  of  faith 
and  practical  holiness,  born  of  its  author's 
human  experience,  yet  leading  to  present  and 
future  salvation,  physical,  mental,  and  moral; 
though  heavenliness  is  oft  hindered  by  cunning 
thought-transferrence,  developing  intolerant 
vagaries,  liable  to  deceive  the  unwary,  by  charg- 
ing its  own  malice  upon  the  heart-purity  of 
others. 

POSTLUDE. 

ANGEL  of  Mercy,  beseeching  Heaven  with 
the  wail  of  breaking  hearts,  didst  note 
the  lonely  night-vigils  ?  Sawest  thou  the  white 
impulses  which  burst  from  a  bruised  spirit,  but 
were  pressed  back  to  the  aching  sense  as  seduc- 
tively demoniacal,  and  labeled  Anathema  Mara- 
natha,  —  cursed  of  God  and  man?  Didst  thou 
convert  them  into  balm  for  every  wound  ? 

When  before  the  all-seeing  Eye  each  character 
page  is  revealed,  — 

When  the  sun  grows  cold,  and  the  stars  are  old, 
And  the  leaves  of  the  judgment  book  unfold,  — 

then  shall  it  appear  what  manner  of  woman  this 

was,  who  loved  from  the  beginning  unto  the  end. 

65 


MY   TENETS   SINCE    1879. 

THERE  is  a  special  revelation  of  Truth 
for  the  nineteenth  century.  In  Jesus 
the  Christ,  Infinite  Mind  opens  to  humanity 
or  rather  in  humanity,  a  well  of  salvation,  en- 
abling mortals,  while  still  in  the  flesh,  "  to  be 
absent  from  the  body  and  present  with  the 
Lord." 

This  way  of  salvation  is  now  known  as 
Christian  Science,  caught  first  as  an  idea,  but 
subsequently  taught  as  a  healing  system,  sure 
to  result  in  holiness,  or  wholeness,  of  intellect, 
body,  and  soul  —  by  Mary  Baker  Eddy,  its 
highest  human  exponent,  in  her  Science  and 
Health,  a  volume  inspired  of  God,  in  so  far 
as  it  sets  forth  Deific  Principle  as  the  rule  of 
faith  and  practice,  needful  for  the  daily  and 
everlasting  health  and  purity  and  happiness 
of  the  human  race. 

This  book  is  the  scientifically  spiritual  inter- 
pretation of  the  Holy  Scriptures ;  but  to  un- 
derstand it  aright,  one  must  find  therein  the 
outgrowth  of  its  author's  varied  human  experi- 
ences. 

As  light  both  has  and  implies  its  correlative 
darkness,  so  spiritual  life  has  its  antagonistic 
corruption,  acting  through  subtly  malicious  hyp- 
notism, the  more  dangerous  because  unseen 
66 


to  the  mortal  eye,  and  little  understood,  run- 
ning into  bigoted  persecution,  yet  wearing 
a  lamblike  garb  calculated  to  "deceive  the 
very  elect,  putting  on  the  livery  of  heaven  to 
serve  the  devil  in,"  and  so  confusing  good  and 
evil,  not  only  in  the  minds  of  the  thoughtless, 
but  of  the  thoughtful  also,  leading  them  to 
such  a  suspicion  of  others'  motives,  even  in 
good  actions,  as  the  Saviour  once  character- 
ized as  the  unpardonable  sin  against  the  Holy 
Ghost. 

Throughout  the  career  of  Christian  Science 
this  enemy  has  made  its  presence  "  a  darkness 
that  maybe  felt,"  and  needing  right  and  search- 
ing analysis  for  its  detection  and  defeat. 

My  own  teachings  and  writings  in  the  Chris- 
tian Science  Journal  and  other  periodicals,  in 
prose  and  poetry,  have  rung  out  no  uncertain 
peal  on  this  subject ;  and  the  aspersion  of 
hypnotism  attached  to  my  name  is  part  of  the 
stigma  to  be  borne  for  trying  to  unstop  the 
ears  of  the  deaf  to  this  evil ;  for  if  the  writer 
has  erred  in  this  line,  it  is  by  trying  to  unmask 
mental  malpractice,  never  by  conniving  there- 
with or  indulging  therein. 

Not  only  do  serpents  poison  the  crushing 
heel,  but  ingratitude  stings  the  beneficent 
hand  ;  and  I  have  a  right  to  resent  the  im- 
67 


putation  of  evil  motives  to  one  whose  faults 
lie  in  the  direction  of  generosity;  but  who 
patiently  awaits  the  verdict  of  the  future, 
which  must  sanction  her  exertions  with  the 
signet  of  Christendom. 


68 


First  printed  in  The  Outlook,  New  York,  May  26,  l8q4. 

A    PLEA    FOR    CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE. 

THIRTY  years  ago,  above  the  horizon 
loomed  a  new  idea.  In  her  text-book, 
Science  and  Health,  the  discoverer  gives  the 
date  of  this  idea's  advent  into  her  consciousness 
as  1866  ;  its  publication  being  copyrighted  later. 

Subsequent  to  Apostolic  days,  I  find  no 
previous  record  of  such  a  healing  method.  In- 
stances abound  of  saintly  exemption  from  unto- 
ward fleshly  conditions ;  this  immunity  being 
attributable  to  stoical  philosophy  or  exalted 
faith,  operating  by  a  process  apparently  in- 
communicable to  others,  and  not  analyzable  in 
the  crucible  of  cause  and  effect,  but  regarded 
as  specially  personal  dispensations. 

New  Testament  wonders  are  pronounced 
mere  proofs  of  Messiahship ;  and  to  hope  for 
their  repetition,  even  on  a  smaller  scale,  is  con- 
sidered blasphemous.  Christian  Science  asks 
if  all  the  Saviour's  manifestations  may  not  have 
been  rooted  in  his  sense  of  infinite  Love,  where- 
by he  strove  to  teach  others  his  healing  rules, 
which  God  would  confirm  by  signs  following. 
In  his  name  should  they  drink  poison  unharmed, 
and  heal  the  sick.  The  worst  devils  were  wolves 
in  sheep's  clothing,  wizards  making  merchandise 
69 


of  Truth,  false  Messiahs  prophesying  lies  ;  but 
these  demons  were  expelled,  and  Jesus  there- 
after affirmed,  "  I  beheld  Satan  as  lightning  fall 
from  Heaven."  Christian  Science  shows  how 
mortals,  while  still  in  the  flesh,  may  abolish  the 
claims  and  ills  thereof.  Obeying  the  ethical 
law,  in  thought  as  well  as  deed,  believers  under- 
stand that  Christ's  crown  was  won  at  the  close 
of  his  earthly  career;  that,  as  Jesus  left  no 
corpse  for  worms,  a  similar  triumph  should 
grace  perfect  manhood.  As,  after  Jesus'  burial, 
he  talked,  ate,  grieved,  Christian  Science  de- 
clares this  condition  to  be  an  important  element 
in  his  God-sent  demonstration.  In  our  great 
exemplar  we  do  not  find  death  involving  cessa- 
tion from  human  emotions,  nor  can  we  infer 
that  our  common  death-experience  is  like  his. 

None  of  us  die  and  rise  like  Jesus,  who  did 
not  regard  Heaven  as  the  outcome  of  death,  but 
death  as  the  last  enemy  to  be  overcome.  Ac- 
cording to  Christian  Science,  the  Master's 
miracles  are  as  orderly  and  interdependent  as 
mathematical  axioms,  —  steps  upward  from 
fleshly  control ;  but  they  are  not  vicariously 
profitable.  We  must  tread  the  wine-press  for 
ourselves,  and  every  step  must  be  taken  in 
sequence.  The  first  is  honest  thought ;  the 
second,  moral  courage  ;  the  third,  unselfish  pur- 
70 


pose.  Then  the  way  is  open  toward  that  eleva- 
tion of  sense  arising  from  the  contrite  heart ; 
but  if  we  reject  the  Christly  foundation-stone,  we 
build  on  sand. 

Like  Peter,  some  Scientists  may  think  they 
can  now  walk  on  the  sea,  because  Jesus  once  did 
so  ;  that,  if  he  forsook  the  tomb,  they  need  never 
enter  it ;  but  the  thirty-third  Masonic  degree  is 
not  conferred  before  its  thirty-two  predecessors. 

Our  world  sneers  when  practitioners  fail ;  but 
ancient  scoffers  derided  Christ's  success.  Popu- 
lar religion  inculcates  a  hope  of  immortality, 
but  leaves  man  horribly  uncertain  about  his 
body,  dismayed  by  the  yawning  grave.  How 
different  Jesus'  victory ! 

Christian  Science  says,  "  Be  Christlike,  and 
ye,  too,  may  authoritatively  rebuke  disease !  "  as- 
suring us  that  we  may  outgrow  a  legion  of  evils. 

Could  the  Magdalen  convey  her  salvation  to 
other  sufferers,  or  must  each  apply  individually 
to  Jesus  ?  If  the  latter,  small  hope  is  there  for 
such  as  never  beheld  him  corporeally. 

It  seems  reasonable  that  one  immaculately 
born  could  heal  others  of  sin  and  disease ;  but 
if  Christian  Science,  discerned  by  one  ordinarily 
begotten,  can  rise  to  equally  saving  heights, 
may  not  this  suggest  the  greater  works  predicted 
by  Jesus  ? 

7' 


Understanding  his  own  spiritual  and  physical 
freedom,  the  Christian  Scientist  can  impart  the 
knowledge  to  honest  students.  It  is  idle  to 
declare  the  present  achievements  of  this  healing 
school  too  insignificant  for  respectful  attention. 
Ignorant  and  unprincipled  adherents  may  trail 
its  standard  in  the  dust,  but  wait !  The  ring  of 
genuine  coin  will  vibrate  in  the  listening  ear. 

The  relation  of  mind  with  mind  involves  the 
moral  responsibility  of  each  to  all.  That  hack- 
neyed phrase,  "Mind  over  matter,"  implies 
Job's  sublime  statement :  "  Yet  in  my  flesh 
shall  I  see  God."  Of  another  aphorism,  "No 
sensation  in  matter,"  the  real  meaning  is : 
There  is  no  pleasure  or  success  in  wrong-doing, 
present  results  to  the  contrary  notwithstanding. 

There  are  noble  physicians  and  clergymen, 
better  fitted  for  royal  healing-robes  than  many 
who  parade  Christian  Science  diplomas.  When 
imminent  death  or  sin,  quickens  the  sharp  cry 
for  aid,  this  may  be  the  opening  window  for 
divine  strength.  If  in  any  Christian  Scientist 
there  are  increasingly  regenerating  signs,  to 
that  shrine  will  come  the  famished,  because  the 
wheat  and  oil  are  there.  Beulah's  richness  once 
gained,  from  its  plenitude  the  needy  may  be 
filled. 

JOSEPHINE   C.    WOODBURY. 
72 


WTIRSITT 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 


THE  WONDER  IN   HEAVEN. 

A  CHRISTMAS  POEM 
By   JOSEPHINE   CURTIS   WOODBURY. 

Illustrated  by  ERIC  PAPE. 


Press  of  SAMUEL  USHER,  Boston. 


Brochure,  $i.qo 
And  there  appeared  a  great  wonder  in  heaven.     Rev.  xii.  I. 


This  is  a  Christmas  poem  by  Mrs.  Josephine  C.  Woodbury.  It  is  a 
short  and  striking  piece  of  verse,  only  seven  stanzas  in  length,  and  is 
intended  to  show  that  the  second  coming  of  Christ  is  to  be  a  great 
blessing  to  the  world.  The  writer  affirms  that  science,  when  beheld 
aright,  is  nature's  creed,  and  that  it  is  to  have  a  large  part  in  giving 
us  the  light  and  earnest  of  the  Christ  that  is  to  be.  Mrs.  Woodbury 
says  in  the  closing  stanza : 

"  Transfigured  Christ ! 
Hail  happy  age,  which  yokes  these  twain 

In  bond  divine, — 
Science  and  Truth,  a  wondrous  reign. 

This  Christmas  morn, 
Earth's  waiting  watchers  clearly  see, 

Sweet  heralds  bring 
Earnest  of  Christ  that  is  to  be." 

The  special  attraction  of  this  poem,  as  here  produced,  is  its  artistic 
form.  It  is  illustrated  by  Mr.  Eric  Pape,  who  is  one  of  the  artists  on 
the  Century,  and  whose  skill  in  the  pictures  of  the  new  biography  of 
Napoleon  is  notable.  In  this  instance  his  work  is  of  a  different  char- 
acter, and  one  who  studies  it  carefully  will  find  that  it  has  a  marked 
significance  of  its  own.  This  little  brochure,  intended  especially  for 


ii  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

the  holidays,  and  to  be  had  in  all  the  bookstores,  is  remarkable  for  its 
chaste  beauty.  It  is  one  of  the  most  refined  and  attractive  Christmas 
presents  which  has  been  issued  for  this  season.  It  is  marked  by  a  cer- 
tain dignity  of  treatment  which  is  as  original  as  it  is  beautiful.  The 
full-page  illustration  of  the  Virgin  Mother  means  something  new  in 
this  case,  and  the  illuminated  headpieces  for  each  new  stanza  are  a 
subtle  interpretation  of  the  meaning  of  the  poem.  The  artist  and  the 
poet  have  worked  together,  and  there  is  a  subtle  connection  between 
the  woman's  form,  star-crowned,  sun-clad,  in  the  front  part  of  the 
poem  and  the  concluding  stanzas.  There  is  something  in  this  poem 
which  strikes  a  new  note,  and  which  will  not  be  found  out  without 
much  study.  Mrs.  Woodbury  has  furnished  the  public  with  a  Christ- 
mas poem  which  is  full  of  fresh  meaning.  —  Boston  Sunday  Herald. 

From  Rev.  Minot  J.  Savage,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the   Church  of 
the  Messiah  of  New  York. 

I  thank  you  for  your  beautiful  and  unique  Christmas  song  —  The 
Wonder  in  Heaven.  Surely  you  see  more  than  John  saw !  The 
"Advancing  God"  has  advanced  in  1800  years;  and  the  promise  of 
the  future  is  glorious  ! 

A  unique  and  exquisite  Christmas  poem.  ...  It  is  an  artistic  and 
entirely  beautiful  rendering  in  verse  of  the  spirit  of  the  I2th  chapter 
of  Revelation,  illustrated  with  extraordinary  charm.  —  Boston  Daily 
Traveller. 

...  A  Christmas  poem  of  a  quite  unusual  kind  ...  is  most  attract- 
ively illustrated.  —  The  Boston  Budget. 

.  .  .  The  little  book  makes  a  strong  appeal  to  holiday  buyers  and 
the  illustrations  are  exquisitely  drawn.  — Boston  Transcript. 

.  .  .  The  poem,  which  embodies  an  aspiration  for  a  new  and  fuller 
Christianity,  wedding  science  and  religion,  is  prettily  conceived,  and 
for  it  Mr.  Eric  Pape  has  drawn  a  series  of  striking  designs  which  are 
both  poetic  and  artistic  to  a  high  degree.  It  is  novel  and  attractive.  — 
Boston  Journal. 

.  .  .  The  poem  is  one  of  the  peculiarly  attractive  novelties  in  Christ- 
mas literature  this  season.  The  poem  is  fine  in  sentiment  and  imagery, 
and  Mr.  Pape's  embellishments  are  charming.  —  The  Beacon. 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES.  iii 

...  It  is  published  in  a  neat  and  attractive  form,, with  fine  illus- 
trations. —  Boston  Daily  Globe. 

One  of  the  most  artistic  offerings  of  the  season.  .  .  .  Nothing  more 
refined  in  design  and  detail  has  been  presented  here,  and  the  pictures 
show  unusual  imaginative  power  in  conception  and  rare  art  in  execution. 

—  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

...  A  poem  of  seven  verses,  which  is  prettily  and  delicately  illus- 
trated .  .  .  such  poems  have  echoed  down  through  the  ages,  and  at  this 
holy  time  they  ever  fall  on  listening  ears  and  ever  stir  the  inner  soul  of 
man.  —  Boston  Post. 

.  .  .  The  brochure  is  most  daintily  prepared,  and  is  finely  illustrated. 

—  The  Portland  Sunday  Times. 

...  Is  one  of  the  prettiest  of  the  holiday  books.  .  .  .  The  illustra- 
tions are  exquisitely  done  and  the  whole  is  elegantly  printed  on  fine 
paper.  —  Portland  Daily  Press. 

A  very  unique  book.  .  .  .  The  verses  are  spirited  and  poetic;  and 
their  charm  is  enhanced  by  the  initial  letters,  each  containing  a  thought- 
suggestive  bit  of  picturing. — American  Art  Journal. 

...  It  is  a  thoughtful  poem,  in  excellent  form,  with  a  daintiness  of 
white  margin  and  illustration  that  must  make  it  attractive  for  the  holi- 
days.—  The  Christian  Leader. 

.  .  .  Not  only  is  this  poem  in  itself  a  literary  gem,  but  it  is  published 
in  an  artistic  form  entirely  outside  of  conventional  forms.  .  .  .  It  is  a 
poem  that  possesses  a  permanent  value  and  while  entirely  unassuming 
is  in  fact  one  of  the  notable  verse  contributions  to  American  literature. 

—  Daily  Kennebec  Journal. 


iv  REVIEWS  AND   NOTICES. 

WAR  IN  HEAVEN. 

Sixteen  Years'  Experience  in  Christian  Science. 

By  JOSEPHINE   CURTIS  WOODBURY. 


Press  of  SAMUEL  USHER,  Boston. 
Third  Edition,  revised,  with  additions.     i6mo.    50  cts. 


And  there  ivas  war  in  heaven.     Rev.  xii.  7.  8. 


Lowell  said:  "The  only  faith  that  wears  well  and  holds  its  color  in 
all  weathers  is  that  which  is  woven  of  conviction  and  set  with  the  sharp 
mordant  of  experience."  This  motto  Mrs.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury 
uses  in  her  pamphlet,  "  War  in  Heaven,"  wherein  she  tells  of  sixteen 
years'  experience  in  Christian  Science  and  mind  healing. 

At  this  advanced  stage  in  the  development  of  thought  and  learning 
it  is  the  narrow-minded  only  who  cavil  at  creeds.  Every  man  has  a 
right  to  his  own  belief,  and  so  long  as  his  life  and  his  deeds  are  such 
that  he  may  claim  for  his  belief  that  it  is  just  and  true,  his  neighbors 
should  not  deny  him  that  privilege.  .  .  . 

Like  all  followers  of  advanced  thought  and  action,  Mrs.  Woodbury 
has  been  surrounded  by  those  who  have  charged  her  with  motives  other 
than  she  professed,  even  stating  that  she  employed  mental  powers 
inimical  to  the  welfare  of  her  followers  or  students.  Mercenary  motives, 
too,  have  also  been  laid  at  her  door.  All  these  charges  are  answered 
in  her  pamphlet.  .  .  . 

All  broad-minded  people  to-day,  whether  in  the  medical  profession 
or  not,  admit  that  there  is  much  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  mind  as  a 
healing  and  saving  power;  and  though  all  may  not  agree  with  Mrs. 
Woodbury  entirely,  her  words  should  carry  some  weight  after  her  long 
experience.  —  Boston  Sitnday  Post. 

"  War  in  Heaven  "  :  This  is  the  title  of  a  pamphlet  by  Mrs.  Josephine 
Curtis  (Battles)  Woodbury,  who  writes  after  sixteen  years  of  experience 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES.  v 

in  what  is  known  as  Christian  Science,  a  healing  method  which  includes 
the  cure  of  sin  as  essential  to  the  salvation  of  mankind  from  disease; 
and  contends  that  the  day  of  this  line  of  Bible  wonders  is  not  past. 
Mrs.  Woodbury  belongs  to  a  race  of  reformatory  thinkers,  and  cleaves 
to  these  medical  doctrines,  whose  origin  she  attributes  to  Mrs.  Eddy, 
known  in  Lynn  and  Boston  for  years  as  a  teacher  of  a  mental  System 
of  healing.  The  name  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's  pamphlet  suggests  the 
alienation  between  herself  and  her  former  associates,  which  she  is  in- 
clined to  lay  at  the  door  of  inimical  mental  forces,  which  bringing 
trouble  upon  honest  wprkers,  seeking  to  divide  those  who  ought  to 
labor  in  unison,  impute  evil  motives  to  earnest  thinkers  and  healers. 
Throughout  her  affiliation  with  this  cause  she  has  not  only  maintained 
her  faith  in  Christian  Science,  but  wrought  with  her  pen  in  its  behalf. 

In  this  brochure  she  tells  an  open  tale  of  her  personal  experience 
in  the  realm  of  hygienic  metaphysics,  and  her  encounters  with  thought- 
transference  both  salubrious  and  insalubrious. 

That  there  is  in  mind-cure  a  fragment  of  fact  is  unquestionable, 
whether  we  spell  "  Mind  "  with  or  without  a  capital;  and  if  once  its 
nonsensical  barnacles  are  scraped  away  it  may  become  of  practical 
value  to  mankind.  No  theology  prospers  without  a  devil.  At  first 
Christian  Science  had  no  Satan,  as  it  denied  the  very  existence  of  evil; 
for  how  can  there  be  a  devil  where  there  is  no  deviltry  ?  This  philos- 
ophy of  the  nonentity  of  sin  it  still  maintains,  but  has  found  its  Satan 
in  hypnotism,  so  that  it  may  fittingly  be  named  Hypnotus.  The  pam- 
phlet is  published  by  Samuel  Usher,  and  will  IDC  read  with  special  inter- 
est by  all  who  are  interested  in  the  subject  of  mental  healing.  —  Boston 
Transcript. 

.  .  .  The  book  will  doubtless  prove  very  satisfactory  reading  to  those 
who  are  interested  in  the  subject,  and  who  are  anxious  to  discover  the 
reasons  that  led  the  author  from  doubt  into  certainty.  —  Saturday 
Evening  Gazette. 

.  .  .  There  is  much  in  the  book  which  seems  marvelous  even  to  the 
Christian  Scientist.  —  Boston  Journal. 

.  .  .  The  book  is  published  in  answer  to  many  charges  that  have 
been  brought.  —  Portland  Evening  Express. 

.  .  .  The  narrative  is  straightforward  and  rather  entertaining  from  its 
apparent  frankness  and  personal  allusions  to  the  many  interesting  inci- 
dents in  Mrs.  Woodbury's  professional  work. —  Bangor  Commercial. 


vi  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

.  .  .  Persons  interested  in  Christian  Science  will  probably  find  in  the 
little  pamphlet  matters  of  moment.  It  might  have  been  of  immense 
value  as  a  human  document  if  the  author  had  written  out  in  full  circum- 
stance the  history  of  the  cabals  in  the  association,  at  which  she  con- 
stantly hints.  —  Boston  Herald. 

"  War  in  Heaven  " :  This  is  the  title  taken  from  the  book  of  Reve- 
lation, of  a  little  work  recently  published  by  Josephine  Curtis  Wood- 
bury.  Its  author  probably  intends  through  its  pages  to  refute  with 
facts  certain  startling  statements  circulated  in  connection  with  herself 
and  Christian  Science.  She  relates  her  experiences  (both  agreeable 
and  untoward)  in  an  earnest,  candid  manner,  and  one  gathers  from  this 
little  book  a  strong  conviction  that  Mrs.  Mary  Eddy  has  very  few  be- 
lievers who  accord  to  her  so  scientific  a  place  in  the  world's  history  as 
does  Mrs.  Woodbury. 

The  book  states  that  its  author,  through  fhe  help  gained  from  Science 
and  Health,  has  not  once  found  it  necessary,  during  sixteen  years,  to 
turn  to  materia  medica  for  relief  for  herself  or  family. 

There  is  no  denial  in  the  book  that  there  has  been  factional  spirit, 
jealousy,  and  schismatic  action  amongst  Mrs.  Eddy's  followers,  but  Mrs. 
Woodbury  seems  to  attribute  all  this  to  the  influence  of  mental  forces, 
hypnotic  in  their  nature,  misleading  in  their  intent,  and  whose  influence 
is  inevitable  until  genuine  Christian  Science  is  enthroned. 

The  book  has  already  had  a  wide  sale  and  has  reached  its  third 
edition.  —  Maiden  Mirror. 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 


ECHOES. 


JiL.      BOOK!      OIF 

By  JOSEPHINE  CURTIS  WOODBURY. 

Decorated  by  ERIC  PAPE. 

Published  in  New  York  and  London  by  G.  P.  PUTNAM'S  SONS. 

New  York :  27  West  23d  Street.  London :  24  Bedford  St.,  Strand. 

Sumptuous  Decorations  by  ERIC  PAPE. 

Initial  Letters  designed  by  ALICE  PAPE. 

Decorations,  including  cover  designs,  reproduced  by  Messrs.  BOUSSOD, 
VALADON  &  CIE.,  Succrs.  de  Goupil  &  Cie.,  Paris,  France. 

Large  8vo.     Gilt  top.     $2.50 


REVIEWS    AND     NOTICES. 


From    Dean,   Very   Rev.    F.    Wm.    Farrar,    D.D.,   Canterbury, 

England. 

Accept  sincere  thanks  for  your  beautiful  book,  which  I  received  with 
great  pleasure.  .  .  . 

From  Rev.  Edward  A.  Horton,  President  and  Executive  Agent 

of  the  Benevolent  Fraternity  of  Churches,  and  President 

of  the  Unitarian  Sunday-School  Society,  of  Boston. 

High  thought  and  rare  art  have  jointly  produced  this  beautiful  volume; 
the  pages  are  rich  with  spiritual  poems  and  fascinating  illustrations. 

Mrs.  Woodbury  clusters  in  lovely  array  mental  visions  and  inspiring 
interpretations;  she  reproduces  moods  and  the  traveler's  rapt  medita- 
tions; she  also  sings  of  great  truths  and  deathless  principles.  Her 
stanzas  blend  the  bright  and  earnest  phases  of  existence. 

In  perfect  tune  is  the  artist  with  the  author's  strains.  Mr.  Pape  re- 
veals new  fertility  of  design,  and  gives  abounding  proof  of  originality. 
His  embodiments  are  in  the  mould  of  exceptional  excellence;  not  only 
do  they  vividly  represent  the  author's  ideas,  but  stir  the  reader's  slum- 
bering poetry  by  unexpected  suggestions.  The  entire  series  is  remark- 
able. 


viii  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

There  is  a  completeness  everywhere  through  the  work,  shown  in  the 
exquisite  taste  of  the  initial  letters,  prepared  by  Alice  Pape,  and  found 
in  the  spacious  page,  gleaming  sheet,  and  ample  type. 

The  soul  of  things,  the  genius  of  places,  the  transcendental  patterns, 
are  tokened  in  this  book,  and  through  the  gateway  of  the  picture 
and  the  poem  the  reader  enters  into  feelings  of  peace,  power,  and 
prophecy. 

From    Rev.    Alexander   McKenzie,    D.D.,    Pastor   of  the    First 
Church  of  Cambridge. 

.  .  .  The  book  is  interesting  both  within  and  without.  The  verses 
are  very  graceful  and  pleasing.  The  thought  is  good  and  happily  ex- 
pressed. I  am  quite  sure  that  to  any  quiet  reader  the  poems  would 
make  the  world  seem  more  attractive,  more  full  of  good  and  happy 
things,  and  make  life  more  simple  and  true. 

I  have  great  faith  in  keeping  close  to  nature.  Science  is  nothing  but 
the  knowledge  of  the  way  in  which  God  works,  and  whatever  keeps  the 
thought  of  this  constant  is  of  good.  .  .  . 

From  Hezekiah  Butterworth. 

I  thank  you  most  cordially  for  the  exquisite  work  of  thought  and  art 
with  which  you  have  favored  me.  I  have  rarely  seen  poetic  gems  so 
rarely  set;  my  own  favorite  would  be  the  "  Spring  Song."  The  poems 
in  the  lighter  vein  lose  their  ripple  in  the  deep  current  of  fuller  feeling 
which  finds  expression  here.  The  book  is  a  garden;  I  again  thank  you 
for  it;  and  especially  for  the  true  interpretation  of  life  in  "Cross 
to  Crown." 

If  I  were  to  make  any  criticism,  it  is  that  the  lighter  poems  should 
have  found  place  in  a  volume  especially  devoted  to  them.  But  the 
book  would  not  then  have  been  a  garden  of  the  orchid  and  field  flower. 

From  Mrs.  Mary  A.  Livermore. 

I  have  carefully  read  your  volume  of  poems,  and  have  greatly  enjoyed 
them.  They  are  of  different  degrees  of  merit,  as  if  some  were  written 
under  strong  inspiration,  and  others  were  struck  off  under  less  powerful 
impulse.  But  a  spiritual  tone  pervades  them,  and  all  have  a  high  moral 
purpose.  The  religious  character  of  the  poems,  even  the  least  of  them, 
must  be  felt  by  all,  and  no  one  can  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the  fact 
that  they  are  the  breathings  of  a  refined,  lofty,  and  aspiring  soul. 


REVIEWS  AND   NOTICES.  ix 

The  book  itself  is  a  most  beautiful  specimen  of  typography,  and  its 
mechanical  execution  is  superb.  You  are  to  be  congratulated  on  the 
charming  setting  of  your  poems. 

From  Lilian  Whiting,  Author  of  "  The  World  Beautiful." 

The  very  beautiful  book  of  your  poems  with  the  exquisite  illustra- 
tions by  Mr.  Pape,  gives  me  pleasure  and  I  return  you  most  sincere 
thanks.  I  never  saw  anything  more  perfect  in  the  art  of  bookmaking 
than  this  sumptuous  volume. 

From  Mr.  Arthur  Howard  Pickering. 

I  have  seldom  seen  a  more  beautiful  book  than  your  "  Echoes,"  as  a 
bit  of  bookmaking  it  is  quite  perfect,  and  Mr.  Pape's  illustrations  are 
very  lovely  and  quite  in  his  best  vein. 

You  may  both  well  be  very  proud  of  it.  Your  verses  are  always  up- 
lifting, and  pure  and  noble  in  sentiment. 

I  especially  care  for  "  Niagara,"  "  A  Picture  Gallery,"  and  the 
"Peasant  Maid  of  Domremy";  those  poems  are  noticeably  character- 
istic and  original. 

.  .  .  These  "  Echoes,"  as  heard  by  the  author  and  transcribed,  are, 
with  the  exception  of  the  last  in  the  book,  a  part  of  the  work  of  the 
past  ten  years.  The  last  poem,  "Class  Ode,"  was  written  when  the 
author  was  but  sixteen  and  was  valedictorian  of  her  class.  Some  of 
the  verses  were  written  during  a  recent  journey  in  Europe,  notably  the 
"  Kenilvvorth,"  "  A  Roman  Vision,"  and  "  Peasant  Maid  of  Domremy." 
The  latter,  as  the  title  indicates,  is  a  poem  of  Joan  of  Arc,  whose  char- 
acter is  evidently  a  favorite  with  the  author. 

.  .  .  The  poems  cover  a  wide  range  of  subjects.  .  .  .  Each  poem 
has  its  accompanying  picture  or  pictures,  and  the  artist  has  so  caught 
the  spirit  of  the  "  Echoes"  that  great  beauty  and  interest  are  added  to 
the  volume.  The  frontispiece  is  particularly  attractive.  It  is  the 
"recording  angel"  and  her  "unsealed  book,"  partly  illustrating  the 
Roman  vision.  —  Boston  Sunday  Post. 

Among  the  masterpieces  of  the  modern  bookmaker's  art  is  a  collec- 
tion of  poems  entitled  "  Echoes,"  by  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury,  deco- 
rated by  Eric  Pape.  The  full-page  illustrations  are  marvels  of  delicate 
beauty,  and  appeal  to  the  artistic  sense  of  the  reader  almost  as  power- 
fully as  the  verses  themselves.  There  seems  to  have  been  the  most  per- 


x  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

feet  bond  of  sympathy  between  author  and  illustrator,  and  the  result  is 
a  book  that  will  ornament  any  library  to  which  it  is  added.  The  verses 
breathe  a  religious  fervor,  but  have  withal  a  touch  of  human  sentiment 
as  delicate  and  subtle  as  the  aroma  of  a  violet.  One  of  the  finest  bits 
of  writing  in  the  book  is  the  "  Peasant  Maid  of  Domremy,"  a  word 
picture  of  Joan  from  shepherd's  staff  to  martyr's  stake.  — Boston  Daily 
Globe. 

"  Echoes  "  is  a  number  of  poems  that  are  graceful  in  fancy  and  artistic 
in  expression.  One  or  two  of  the  poems  might  well  be  spared,  but  the 
majority  will  be  a  pleasant  surprise  to  Mrs.  Woodbury's  friends,  for  they 
show  thought,  imagination,  and  tender  feeling.  The  book  is  charmingly 
printed,  and  the  decorations  by  Eric  Pape  are  not  only  cleverly  drawn 
and  imagined,  but  they  are  integral  portions  of  the  poems  that  they 
illustrate.  —  The  Boston  Saturday  Evening  Gazette. 

Echoes.     By  Josephine  Curtis  (Battles)  Woodbury. 

This  is  a  modest  title-page  for  contents  so  rich  in  literary  execution 
and  illustration  in  the  best  of  the  art.  Our  older  readers  have  distinct 
memories  of  Rev.  Amory  Battles,  so  long  our  Bangor  pastor,  —  faultless 
in  moral  intuition,  and  heedless  of  consequences  when  compelled  to  de- 
clare himself  by  an  earnest  conviction.  He  had  two  brothers  of  the  same 
temperament  and  similar  mental  traits,  —  one  of  whom  was  our  special 
friend  and  for  a  time  co-worker.  This  means  that  we  know  the  Battles 
blood.  Well,  the  author  of  these  poems  is  one  of  them  —  a  niece  of 
Amory  and  about  as  independent.  Of  the  twenty-four  poems,  those 
which  we  single  out  for  a  test,  "  The  Shadow  of  the  Almighty," 
"Niagara,"  "A  Roman  Vision,"  "On  Peerless  Height,"  " Kenilworth," 
"Cross  to  Crown,"  sufficiently  attest  that  the  merit  is  not  exclusively  in 
the  rhyme  or  melody  of  syllables  —  in  both  of  which  they  are  notably 
excellent —  but  in  the  imaginings  that  would  be  true  poetry  even  if  set 
in  prose.  But  this  broad  octavo,  or  folio,  is  not  needed  for  the  text. 
The  illustrations  make  a  picture  gallery,  and  the  decorative  pencil  is  that 
of  a  master.  The  title-page  as  a  sample  of  decoration  is  unique  in  de- 
sign and  faultless  in  beauty.  "  Spring  Song,"  "  Love's  Message," 
"Mid  Ocean,"  "Mont  Blanc,"  "  De  Profundis,"  "Kenilworth,"  will 
hold  the  gaze  they  arrest,  if  there  is  soul  behind  the  physical  vision. 
In  mechanical  make-up  it  is  difficult  to  imagine  what  good  thing  in  the 
printer's  art  is  left  out.  But  work  of  this  nature  to  be  appreciated  must 
be  both  seen  and  read.  —  The  Christian  Leader. 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES.  xi 

This  is  one  of  the  most  sumptuous  books  of  the  year.  Within  covers 
of  creamy  linen,  strikingly  decorated  by  a  famous  artist,  whose  work 
also  adorns  each  page,  Mrs.  Woodbury  has  collected  twenty-four  of  her 
poems  which  she  deems  most  worthy  of  permanence. 

The  selections  have  been  made  judiciously,  and  the  range  of  subject 
and  treatment  in  even  this  limited  number  of  lines  is  sufficient  to  demon- 
strate the  author's  genuine  gifts  and  evident  inspiration.  A  striking 
note  of  reverence  runs  through  nearly  all  the  lines  of  the  book,  and  it 
is  clear,  too,  that  the  selections  which  comprise  this  volume  have  been 
made  with  a  view  to  epitomizing  the  writer's  beliefs,  aspirations,  and 
philosophy,  while  at  the  same  time  they  mirror  many  of  her  actual 
experiences. 

From  a  strict  critical  sense  not  every  one  of  the  twenty-four  poems 
here  given  to  the  public  is  worthy  of  so  wide  an  audience.  The  wisdom, 
for  example,  of  including  in  so  pretentious  a  work  such  a  crude  effort 
as  the  "  Class  Ode,"  which  is  clearly  a  product  of  Mrs.  Woodbury's 
youth,  and  therefore,  except  as  a  measure  of  contrast,  unworthy  to 
stand  beside  such  a  genuine  piece  of  poetry  and  philosophy  as  this :  — 

And  who  art  thou,  dread,  shapeless  wraith,  — 

Across  my  path 
With  shadows  flung,  —  whose  icy  breath 

My  lips  doth  freeze? 
"  I  am  thy  Past,"  it  saith, 
"  Quick  hastening  to  my  death." 

And  who  art  thou,  with  seraph  palm, 

Whose  gentle  mien 
My  frightened  gaze  doth  hold  and  calm  ? 

"  I  'm  named  To-day  : 
My  heart  with  love  is  warm; 
I  bring  thee  Gilead  balm." 

Again  I  spoke,  and  questioned  one 

Who  came  not  near; 
O'er  her,  with  rainbow-hues,  there  shone 

Rich,  promised  joy. 
"  Thy  Future,  I,  —  ne'er  won, 
But  ever  leading  on." 

Concord  (N.  //.)  Evening  Monitor. 


xii  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  books  of  the  year  in  typography,  illustra- 
tion, and  binding  is  Mrs.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury's  volume  of 
poems,  "  Echoes,"  just  issued  by  the  Putnams,  and  its  contents  are  in 
full  harmony  with  its  exterior.  The  tone  is  pure  and  elevated,  the 
spirit  sweet  and  sympathetic,  and  the  poems  are  really  "  echoes  "  from  a 
higher  life  instead  of  expressions  of  personal  feeling  or  emotion.  Most 
of  them  are  of  a  deeply  religious  character,  but  in  them  there  is  no 
trace  of  gloominess  or  complaint.  They  are  illumined  and  irradiated 
by  the  light  of  a  living  and  wholesome  Christianity,  the  sunshine  of 
faith  and  hope.  The  following  little  poem,  "  The  Shadow  of  the 
Almighty,"  is  a  key  to  the  spirit  of  the  whole  book  :  — 

"  O  Mother  Love  !  Thou  broodest  still 

In  tenderness  divine 
O'er  each  dear  child  who  does  Thy  will 
And  finds  his  strength  in  Thine. 

The  feathers  of  Thy  bosom  warm 

His  covering  shall  be, 
When  snare  of  fowler  waits  to  harm 

Or  shut  him  out  from  Thee. 

The  angels  of  Thy  watchful  care 

Are  round  about  Thine  own. 
They  triumph  over  human  fear 

Who  trust  in  Thee  alone. 

When  hatred  shoots  its  poisoned  dart 

And  clouds  of  terror  lower, 
They  nestle  closer  to  Thy  heart, 

Thy  truth  their  shield  and  power." 

The  volume  is  printed  on  heavy  hand-made  paper,  and  elegantly 
bound  in  white  with  emblematic  cover,  and  there  are  twenty-eight  ex- 
quisite full-page  "illustrations  and  titles  from  the  pencil  of  Eric  Pape, 
whose  work  in  this  line  of  art  is  widely  known.  The  initials  and  tail- 
pieces are  by  Mrs.  Pape.  —  The  Boston  Transcript. 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES.  xiii 

From  J.   Henry  Wiggin,  Clergyman  and  Journalist. 

MRS.  WOODBURY'S  NEW  VOLUME,  "  ECHOES." 

The  authoress  of  these  poems  has  passed  through  varied  spiritual 
experiences.  Reared  amidst  reasonable  skepticism  as  to  many  Scrip- 
tural teachings,  —  a  distrust  based,  not  on  flippant  fault-finding,  but  on 
deep-searching  criticism,  —  she  came  later  into  the  living  conviction  of 
profounder  truth  permeating  the  Bible,  and  its  Christian  revelation; 
and  mostly  these  verses  are  the  outgrowth  of  her  maturer  years. 

In  Mrs.  Woodbury's  adherence  to  unusual  ideas  she  has  encountered 
something  more  painful  than  mere  misapprehension,  —  that  is,  misrep- 
resentation, and  what  often  seems  like  absolute  persecution.  This 
misjudgment  has  been  largely  caused  _by  certain  inherited  character- 
istics, which  are  as  naturally  inevitable  in  Mrs.  Woodbury  as  lilacs  in 
May  or  thorns  on  a  rose  tree :  firstly,  her  brain  power,  overtopping  that 
of  most  people  with  whom  she  has  been  brought  into  ecclesiastical 
association;  secondly,  her  keen  insight  into  —  and  often  sarcastic  com- 
ment upon  —  opinions,  motives,  foibles,  and  blunders  (her  own 
included),  which  set  her  lambent  wit  into  free  play  over  every  subject 
she  touches;  thirdly,  her  poetic  temperament,  not  only  gilding  what  it 
touches,  but  enwreathing  incidents  with  airy  arabesques  of  romantic 
fancy,  wholly  incomprehensible  to  obtuse  minds;  fourthly,  a  rare  frank- 
ness in  the  discussion  of  mundane  facts;  fifthly,  a  capacity  and  aptitude 
for  leadership. 

From  such  sources  has  arisen  much  of  the  opposition  encountered 
by  this  lady;  since  nothing  so  disturbs  people  as  ridicule,  especially 
when  merited;  intellectual  superiority  is  a  sure  rouser  of  jealousy; 
and  dictators  seldom  enjoy  being  themselves  directed. 

It  is  well,  therefore,  that  this  lovely  volume  should  drop  from  the 
press,  "  adorned  as  a  bride  for  her  husband,"  to  show  the  writer's  finer 
nature  and  loftiest  ideals;  for  it  is  full  of  devout  aspiration,  which  finds 
fit  outlet  to  the  eye,  through  the  subtle  illustrations  by  Eric  Pape,  and 
the  lesser  decorations  by  his  gifted  wife. 

If  some  verses  are  trivial,  like  her  Graduation  Ode,  these  the  better 
serve  as  milestones  to  mark  the  gallop  from  girlhood,  "twenty  miles 
away,"  to  a  scene  of  victory,  where  enmity  and  detraction  vanish  blood- 
lessly  into  the  dust,  itself  soon  to  be  laid  low  by  the  dews  of  peaceful 
starlight. 

The  poem  on  Venice  must  rouse  interest,  not  only  for  its  rhythmic 
fire,  but  for  its  reversal  of  the  common  bridal  metaphor.  If  that  old 


xiv  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

city  be  feminine,  Queen  of  the  Adriatic,  then  how  could  she  wed 
another  woman,  the  Sea  ?  The  groom,  of  yore,  always  conferred  the 
ring;  and  as  it  was  the  Doge  who  dropped  this  wedlock  symbol  into 
the  water,  surely  this  implied  his  city's  masculinity;  and  this  is  the 
comparison  treated  in  this  poem. 

Again,  in  her  Lullaby,  there  occurs  this  stanza,  rousing  a  query  in  the 
mind  of  a  leading  critic  : 

Dear  one,  watch ! 
Through  Heaven's  prism, 

Glows  each  star, 
A  holy  chrism. 

Yet  why  should  not  a  colorless  white  star  of  celestial  hope  shine 
through  tinted  prismatic  rays,  crowning  itself  with  the  colored  aureole 
of  human  vicissitude? 

The  juvenile  story  of  the  child  climbing  into  a  treetop  has  its  lesson 
as  to  the  possibility  of  overcoming  daily  disagreeables  with  a  vertical 
glance  into  the  eternal  sky. 

Peculiarly  beautiful  is  the  Antwerp  poem,  addressed  to  "  bright  birds 
who  soar  and  sing." 

Somebody  asks:  "Why  not  which,  instead  of  who?"  Because  the 
birds  are  personified  as  devoutly  soaring  worshippers,  in  contrast  to  the 
kneeling  devotees  about  the  altars  below,  glorifying  crucifix  and  tomb, 
wherefrom,  even  by  their  own  theoretic  theology,  the  Saviour  had 
already  ascended  to  the  Father  above. 

In  the  poem  about  the  three  wishful  gifts  of  Eastertide,  we  find  a 
quaint  legend  sublimated  into  religious  thought ;  as  De  Profundis  and 
Jubilate  betoken  a  heart  purified  by  gazing  alike  into  the  depths  of  trial 
and  the  relief  of  self-conquest. 

No  wonder  the  Spring  Song  has  been  called  an  epitome  of  human 
life;  that  the  Christian  Leader  should  republish  its  review  of  Echoes, 
to  meet  the  demands  of  purchasers;  that  Two  Pictures  should  be  pro- 
nounced a  wellrnigh  perfect  poem;  that  the  Turkey  rhyme  should  be 
said  to  fairly  disarm  criticism;  or  that  one  literary  expert  should  aver 
that  Mrs.  Woodbury's  poems  affect  him  like  solemn  anthems,  with 
background  of  organ  melody. 

The  blank  verse  of  A  Roman  Vision  has  been  declared  unexception- 
ally  excellent,  as  symbolizing  that  ancient,  yet  still  waging  conflict 
between  Pagan  ritualism  and  the  St.  Paul .  of  that  free  "  Jerusalem 
which  is  the  mother  of  us  all."  .  .  . 


REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES.  XY 

PAINTER  AND  ILLUSTRATOR. 

Mr.  Eric   Rape's  Work  with   Pen  and  Brush. 
Mr.  Rape's  Salon  Pictures. 


A  young  man  is  staying  in  Boston  at  present  who  has  within  a  few 
years  achieved  no  small  measure  of  fame  as  a  painter  and  illustrator. 
Mr.  Eric  Pape  is  a  Californian  by  birth,  an  American  by  nature,  and  a 
cosmopolitan  by  adoption.  In  1888  he  went  to  Paris  to  study  art. 
Boulanger  was  his  first  master;  later  he  studied  at  the  Ecole  des  Beaux 
Arts  and  at  Julian's.  Among  his  teachers  have  been  Lefebvre,  Jean 
Paul  Laurens,  Constant,  Delance,  Blanc,  Rixens,  and  Doucet.  ...  In 
October,  1891,  he  went  to  Egypt.  During  two  years  in  that  country  he 
painted  a  large  picture,  "The  Two  Great  Eras,"  which  brought  him  his 
first  taste  of  international  reputation.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Mr.  Pape  came  to  New  York  somewhere  about  the  time  when 
Professor  Sloane's  "  Life  of  Napoleon "  began  its  long  run  in  the 
Century.  He  was  at  once  engaged  to  prepare  the  illustrations  for  that 
work,  and  this  undertaking  kept  him  busily  employed  for  about  a  year. 
A  surprisingly  large  number  of  pictures  were  made  at  this  time,  for 
many  other  books  and  stories  beside  the  "  Life  of  Napoleon."  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Mr.  Pape  has  made  illustrations  for  a  play  by  Sir  Walter  Besant, 
"The  Charm,"  which  appeared  in  one  of  the  magazines;  for  the  story 
of  Miss  Sarah  Orne  Jewett,  "My  Sad  Captains";  for  Miss  Grace 
King's  "Balcony  Stories";  for  one  of  Robert  Louis  Stevenson's  post- 
humous stories,  "The  Great  North  Road  ";  and  for  poems,  stories,  and 
books  by  Bret  Harte,  Katrina  Trask,  Kate  Douglas  Wiggin,  Beatrice 
Harranden's  "Hilda  Strafford,"  Telford  Grosbeck's  " The  Incas,"  and 
many  others.  .  .  . 

...  Of  Mr.  Pape's  latest  work  in  the  line  of  preparing  illustrations 
for  books,  probably  the  most  serious  has  been  the  group  of  pictures 
made  for  "  Echoes,"  by  Mrs.  Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury,  whose  guest 
he  is  while  in  Boston.  Mrs.  Pape,  whg  was  Miss  Alice  Monroe  of  this 
city,  the  daughter  of  the  late  Prof.  Lewis  B.  Monroe,  Dean  of  the  Bos- 
ton University  School  of  Oratory,  and  whom  Mr.  Pape  met  during  her 
six  years'  study  of  art  at  Paris,  made  the  initial  letters  for  the  same 


xvi  REVIEWS  AND  NOTICES. 

volume.  The  original  of  the  frontispiece  will  be  on  exhibition  at 
Williams  &  Everett's  within  a  few  days.  .  .  . 

.  .  .  Mr.  Pape  submitted  sixteen  paintings  to  the  Salon  this  year,  the 
committee  accepted  them,  but  were  unable  to  hang  the  entire  number 
on  account  of  space.  They  wrote  the  artist  to  come  to  the  Salon  and 
select  eight  which  he  especially  wished  to  exhibit  out  of  the  number  — 
rather  an  unusual  proceeding;  he  chose  seven  that  formed  a  series,  and 
one  other.  .  .  .  Altogether  Mr.  Pape  has  had  twenty-two  pictures  in 
the  Salon  of  the  Champ  de  Mars.  .  .  . 

...  He  has  just  completed  a  large  painting,  which  has  not  yet  been 
exhibited,  entitled  "  The  Angel  with  the  .Book  of  Life."  The  light- 
giving  angel  stands  between  the  leaves  of  an  enormous  book,  upon 
which  are  written,  in  gold,  the  names  of  samts,  giving  the  effect  of 
illuminated  pages.  ...  In  the  decorations  for  Mrs.  Woodbury's  poems 
the  mystical,  spiritual  character  of  the  pervading  tone  was  well  inter- 
preted. —  Boston  Sunday  Herald. 


From  Rev.  Chas.  A.  Dickinson,  D.D.,  Pastor  of  the  Berkeley 
Temple  (Boston). 

...  I  have  just  been  looking  the  beautiful  volume  through,  .'.nd  I 
am  greatly  delighted  with  its  contents.  Beautiful  thoughts  beautifully 
expressed.  The  volume  is  surely  a  fitting  illustration  of  Coleridge's 
definition  of  poetry :  "  The  blossom  and  fragrance  of  human  knowl- 
edge, human  thoughts,  human  passions,  emotion,  language."  ... 


REVIEWS  AND   NOTICES. 


CHRISTIAN    SCIENCE 
VOICES. 


BY 


Josephine  Curtis  Woodbury, 


Press  of  SAMUEL   USHER,  Boston. 


(In    F»re»s  —  Ready  June,    1897.) 

8vo.    260  pages*     $2.00 


And,  behold,  there  came  a  voice  unto  him. 

I  Kings  xix.  13.  14. 

Et  prout  vultis  ut   faciant  vobis   homines,  et  vos  facite 
illis  similiter.     Luke  vi.  31. 


Writings  of  JOSEPHINE  CURTIS  WOODBURY. 
J885-J897. 


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